


Learn To Love Again

by clockworkgirl221



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anglo-Saxon Paganism, Consent is Sexy, Erebor is a small country in Europe, F/M, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Minor Character Death, Past Child Abuse, Past Child Molestation, Rewrite
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-02
Updated: 2015-02-01
Packaged: 2018-02-27 21:03:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2706689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clockworkgirl221/pseuds/clockworkgirl221
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Kili/Bilbo, Thorin/Dwalin rewrite.</p><p>Prince Kili needs to get married in order to inherit anything on his 18th birthday. When forced to choose someone, he picks out Bilbo Baggins out of the pile of thousands of wealthy bachelors. Well… Bilbo isn’t exactly happy with that decision… at first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Kili's Choice

**Author's Note:**

> You may remember this title. Well... I decided the fic needed more Kilbo... and more Dwalin.
> 
> ONWARD!

Thorin Oakenshield, King of the country of Erebor, was used to going in front of cameras. He had had to do it many times: from the death of his brother-in-law, to the death of his dear sister and the adoption of his nephews that followed. He had had to go in front of the public at the small nation’s festivals, and to tell the general public about new laws and regulations. The bulk of his TV appearances seemed to be because of his nephews though.

At least this time it was happy news, and about his oldest one.

“Ladies and gentlemen of Erebor and the world,” he started, reading off the cards his Secretary of State had written for him. “I am here in front of you today to announce the engagement of my oldest nephew, Fili Oakenshield, and his new fiancé Bofur!”

The camera panned out from Thorin’s face and moved toward the happy couple, dressed smartly in suits with hair and beards cropped just for the occasion, standing on the right of Thorin, waving and smiling happily as multiple cameras flashed, and the mob of news teams rushed on the Royals’ security team.

***

For some odd reason, Thorin the Second Oakenshield never married himself. He was now 33 years old, the youngest King since before the country was united under Thorin’s great-great grandfather Thorin the First. His grandfather had died overseas in battle in one of the great wars, and his father died of a broken heart after his wife died of cancer when Thorin was only 11 years old. So Thorin had ascended the throne when he was 13 years old, but matters of state had been put into the hands of Thorin’s cousin Balin until Thorin came of age.

When Thorin was eighteen, he was given the powers of state formally, and he quickly became the most well loved King since his father’s time.

At 14, Thorin lost his brother-in-law to a strange flesh-eating disease the other man had picked up in South America when he was there on a charity trip. His wife, Thorin’s sister, was devastated, and pregnant with Kili. She lost a lot of weight in the last few months of her pregnancy, and the shock of Kili’s birth on her body killed her.

Thorin formally adopted five-year-old Fili and four-year-old Kili after that, when he turned eighteen. The young boys had been living in the palace, being raised by a nursemaid for four years, but when Thorin adopted them, he raised them as his own sons, and Princes of the nation of Erebor. Now Fili was nineteen and getting married to his high school sweetheart Bofur, and Kili… well…

***

The whole palace was abuzz with the news of the engagement after the press conference ended. Situated within the only mountain in the entire nation, besides the Misty Mountains that provided a border for Erebor, the castle was a sight to behold. The palace was nicknamed the Lonely Mountain because it was inside the mountain, and so the rooms were simply cavernous. The architecture was grand as one walked inward, away from the walls of the actual mountain, looking more and more like a stereotypical castle with great halls and rooms and staircases. There was one cavernous room at the very center of the mountain under the peak where a great chandelier hung down and continued through a faux ceiling into the grandest ballroom ever seen. It made the ballroom at Russia’s Winter Palace look more like a dingy apartment.

The Royals sat in a smaller room toward the edge of the mountain, where there were windows looking outside at the vast expanse of green toward the eastern end of the palace. Dale and Esgaroth were to the south, and then on the other three sides there was endless green, though sometimes there was sheep and shepherds to dot the landscape. The happy couple sat in an armchair together, whispering and giggling. Thorin brought his work into the hall, where his youngest nephew had settled at a table away from the fireplace and the happy couple.

“You seem displeased, Kili,” said Thorin lowly.

“I am happy for my brother that he has found someone that he would marry even if he wasn’t being forced to do it for his inheritance.”

“He didn’t know about the inheritance when Bofur asked him to marry him,” Thorin reminded the darker haired brother.

Kili scoffed, slumping over the table overdramatically. “Fili’s always been the luckier one. I can’t even chat up a pretty girl in a pub.”

Thorin sighed, and pushed a tan file folder over to his nephew, “I thought you’d mention that. Here.”

Kili looked up, first at his uncle and then at the folder. “What is this?”

“Every bachelor and bachelorette in the system. That little friend of yours is a whiz with a computer…”

“Ori?” Kili asked, smiling, “Yes he is. But… is this entirely legal?”

“Everyone has to put their name in the system when they get driver’s licenses and bank accounts,” Thorin shrugged. “Pick someone you like. Most of them have full profiles since they’re part of the wealthier end of the spectrum…”

Kili grumbled, but thanked his uncle anyway, slinking off with the thick folder to somewhere private.

***

Kili spent most of the night looking at faces. Mostly old faces, and sometimes ugly faces too. After midnight everyone’s face seemed to blend together. At about three in the morning he had gone through every face and was looking through them all again. Nothing really stood out to him. Even the younger faces looked a bit liked the older ones if Kili imagined lines on their foreheads and around their eyes.

He looked at names, incomes, education, and found nothing that jumped out at him. He wished that there was a form of speed-dating, where he could get to know these men and women a bit better than their alma maters and saccharine smiles.

Finally, he picked ten of the people with the nicest faces or the most interesting educations, closed his eyes, and pointed to one of them.

“Bilbo Baggins,” the teen said, trying the name he had chosen out. “If he’s marrying me, then it’ll probably be Bilbo Oakenshield.”

He stared at the face on the piece of paper, his eyes traveling to the brown-gold curls and the dark eyes and then down the cute nose. Mister Baggins looked smart and respectable. Behind those eyes was a sense of adventure, burrowed deeply. Kili shook his head: he really was reading too much into this fellow.

“But I chose him with my eyes closed. Someone guided my finger toward him,” Kili muttered, looking up at the sky to prove his point (or threaten the fates).

Finally, morning came, and Kili managed to wake himself up around eleven, dress, and confront his uncle in his office twenty minutes later.

Thorin was seated at the big oak desk, signing or vetoing bills written by his House of Lords or House of Commons. A man known to Kili as Gandalf was sitting in an armchair near the window a little ways away, reading over some documents. The older man looked up as Kili entered and stood up suddenly, jarring Thorin out of his concentration.

“Ah, Kili…” Thorin said, beckoning his youngest heir to sit across from him.

Gandalf moved to stand next to Thorin. “I can tell you’ve chosen someone,” the old man said. Gandalf was the Royals’ lawyer, and he had an uncanny way of knowing what was on someone’s mind. He also had a wonderful gift of making other people see things his way, which got Kili and Fili out of a lot of sticky situations in their less-than-noble past.

“Him,” Kili said, dropping Bilbo Baggins’s profile on the desk.

Thorin pulled the paper closer and studied the face on it.

Gandalf looked over the King’s shoulder and chuckled, “He’s one of the younger ones…”

Kili nodded sharply at the older man, “I thought it appropriate…”

Thorin looked back up at the boy, “Are you absolutely sure, Kili?”

Kili shrugged, “He seemed… sweet.”

***

On the outskirts of Erebor, near the Misty Mountains that separated Erebor from the rest of the continent, there was a tiny village known to everyone as the Shire. It was an agrarian town, and its wealthiest family was known as the Bagginses, and they lived in a great mansion known as Bag End.

Sadly, Bungo and Belladonna Baggins, the owners of Bag End, had left this world, caught up in an accident involving one if their cousins driving high. Smaegol Sackville-Baggins had survived, but Bungo and Belladonna had died almost instantly.

They left Bag End to their only son, and boy of 20, who rushed home from university to take care of legal matters and to look after the estate and its workers. As an agrarian town, Bag End looked after the fields and provided work for the other villagers of the Shire. Bilbo never went back to University after taking on Bag End, but he often read and consulted maps, wanting to get away from the country someday and travel, especially to Scotland, where his mother was born and raised.

It was on a lovely day, about three years since Bilbo had come in to his inheritance, that Bilbo’s life suddenly changed again.

He was outside walking the fields, chatting up the people who worked on his land, when a messenger from the house staff ran up and announced a strange visitor from the city of Dale, which was a long way off, in the center of the nation of Erebor.

“He’s tall, with white beard and hair. I think he’s that bloke who keeps getting the Princes out of trouble!” the woman said.

Bilbo was paying attention to her, but his eyes gravitated to her baby bump and he sighed exasperatingly, “Sunshine Gamgee,” he admonished, “You’re five months pregnant! Why didn’t you have young Bluebell Brandybuck run the message instead?”

“She sprained her ankle last week, and we couldn’t find any of the other children,” Sunshine replied. “But if it makes you feel better, I’ll walk slowly back to the house with you.”

Bilbo smiled, shaking his head, “All right, then. You’re as stubborn as any Gamgee…”

“Match made in heaven, me and ol’ Hamfast,” Sunshine sighed.

They walked and talked pleasantly as they approached the great white house with the green front door, and once they were on the porch Sunshine went around the house to the secret kitchen door, and Bilbo resignedly went through the back door, winding around the halls until he found the day room.

There sat the old man, white beard and all, reading over some file folder. He looked up when Bilbo approached and stood up, sticking out his hand.

“Bilbo Baggins, I presume?” he asked.

“Yes,” Bilbo replied, shaking Gandalf’s hand, “And you are?”

“Gandalf Gray,” the man replied, sitting back down. Bilbo sat down in an armchair across from him. “I’m here on business from the palace.”

“I can see that. I hope everything’s all good? We’ve been right on time with our harvests, and you have your own lands to get you food in the meantime…” Bilbo told him.

Gandalf chuckled, “You run a very tight ship here, but everyone who works in the house, at least, seems to love you.”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” Bilbo responded, ducking his head humbly, “But I try to provide for the village, as this is one of the only ways to make a living besides the shops in town. Not everyone in the village can hire everyone who needs work, you know.”

“And you are very generous,” Gandalf replied. “Anyway, I have a proposition for you.”

“What is it?” Bilbo asked, having been curious about Gandalf’s presence for a while.

“Well…” Gandalf started. “The youngest Prince is lonely. You might have caught the announcement of the oldest brother’s engagement?”

“Yes… congratulations to him. I hope he and his fiancé will be happy together…” Bilbo said automatically.

Gandalf chuckled, “We all do… and we all have faith that they will,” he set the file folder down and leaned forward a bit on the couch he was sitting on, “Prince Fili and Prince Kili were inseparable as lads. I never saw one without the other. Fili is only one year Kili’s senior, so they were always close, even at school. Until Fili and Bofur got closer Fili’s first year in high school. I think Kili feels abandoned somehow, and so I’m here to remedy that.”

“What can I do?” Bilbo asked, his heart going out to the younger Prince of Erebor.

“Well… you will be rewarded upon completion, as Kili will inherit a vast amount of wealth, including a house called Moria, near a mining town a little southwest from here,” Gandalf said, “But… I think companionship is what you can do for Kili.”

“Wait,” Bilbo said, catching up a bit, “Are you… are you saying that I’m to be betrothed to Prince Kili?”

Gandalf smiled, “That’s exactly what I am saying.”

“No,” Bilbo said sharply, “I have Bag End to maintain. If I leave, that will open up Bag End to the Sackville-Bagginses, and they’ve already taken too much from me…”

“I will find someone else to take care of Bag End,” Gandalf said. “You have cousins in the next town over: Drogo and his wife and young child.”

Bilbo blinked, having not thought of that, “Oh… yes… they’re quite a lovely family… But… I can’t just up a leave Bag End, even if you will take care of things! I don’t even know Prince Kili that well!”

“He picked you out of thousands of others like you,” Gandalf replied calmly. “He obviously wants to get to know you.”

“He’s been acting out a lot recently!” Bilbo nearly shouted.

“He feels betrayed by his brother and he needs someone to fill the void. You would be saving Kili, in a way, by agreeing to become his husband…”

Bilbo began bouncing his leg in anxiety, but his mind was working a mile a minute. Finally he said, “I can’t do it. You can’t expect me to want to marry someone I don’t have a strong attachment to. Yes, he’s one of the Princes of my nation, but that still doesn’t mean anything!”

Gandalf continued smiling, “You are a good man, Bilbo Baggins. Which is why I have suggested to the Prince and his guardian, King Oakenshield himself, that we may try a two-week trial period. At the end of two weeks of staying in the palace, you may choose whether you want to marry Kili or not. If not, no harm done and you can return to the Shire and to your life.”

Bilbo’s leg stopped bouncing and he breathed a sigh of somewhat relief. “Will you have Drogo and his family come up to look after things while I’m gone?” he asked.

Gandalf nodded, “Of course.”

“And a two-week trial period,” Bilbo said as a statement, mostly to himself. He breathed in slowly, then out before he said, “All… All right. For the good of the nation, I guess. Don’t want Kili to end up on the Most Wanted lists…”

“Good lad,” Gandalf said, and opened up the file folder, “I just need you to sign some things please… read these carefully…”

***

It was one wagon-ride to the train-station, then one train to Dale from Buckleberry Station. Bilbo packed three suitcases, said goodbye to his house staff, left it in Gandalf’s most capable hands, and then was off on a new adventure, though it wasn’t to his mother’s childhood home, but it was an extreme change of scene nonetheless.

An old gentlemen named Balin picked him up at the station and took him in an armored limousine to the Lonely Mountain. As soon as they reached the foothills of the great palace, they went underground to a parking garage underneath.

But soon Bilbo was in the presence of Thorin Oakenshield, his two nephews, and his oldest nephew’s fiancé.

Prince Kili, Bilbo’s possible intended, became shy as Bilbo walked into the King’s office, but he soon warmed a little and at least shook Bilbo’s hand. “I hope your journey here was pleasant.”

“It was, thank you,” Bilbo replied, trying to catch Kili’s eye. Kili didn’t hold his gaze for very long, and he seemed most uncomfortable doing it anyway.

 _He wasn’t like that as a child… though that might have just been a persona for the news crews…_ Bilbo thought.

“Gandalf has given you the papers and you know that this is only temporary unless you decide to marry my youngest heir?” Thorin asked gruffly. He didn’t seem pleased with Bilbo one bit. Bilbo wondered for a brief moment if Kili had chosen Bilbo to get back at his uncle.

 _Though he would probably want to get back at his brother more,_ Bilbo mused to himself, glancing over at Fili, who seemed ecstatic at the possible match between Bilbo and his younger brother.

Bilbo finally nodded at Thorin, bowing, “I understand the contracts I signed, Your Majesty.”

“Good,” Thorin said, and dismissed them all with a final command: “Kili, as his potential betrothed, take him to his rooms, please.”

“Yes, uncle,” Kili replied, turning silently to their guest. “Please, follow me, Master Baggins.”

 


	2. Bilbo's Curiosity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANKS FOR ALL THE KUDOS, LIKE WOW. Guys, second time posting this and people still want to read it? Holy hot dwarrows!
> 
> Without further ado, chapter two (I swear I didn't make it perfectly rhyme)!

Kili said nothing more as he escorted Bilbo to his rooms. The young man was pensive, and Bilbo wondered what had happened to him to make him that way. It might have been part Fili’s engagement, but there had to be another reason for Kili’s quietness.

“Something the matter, Your Highness?” Bilbo finally asked.

Kili looked back at his guest and shook his head, flashing a smile at his potential intended. “Nothing. I just… um, forgot where your rooms were for a moment…”

A good lie, but a lie nonetheless: Kili seemed like a man on a mission, and he knew exactly where he was going as he was so deliberate and confidant as he showed Bilbo to the north wings. “And here we are,” Kili said, making a ‘ta da’ motion with his hands.

Bilbo’s rooms were stunning. He had his own study area, filled with books (indeed, peeking in to all the rooms showed Bilbo shelves upon shelves of books all over the palace), a bathroom on one end of the study, and his bedroom on the other. The far end of his rooms looked out towards the north of the palace, which showed vast expanses of green and little dots of white sheep and the odd cottage. Bilbo almost felt like he was looking over his own sheep pastures back home.

Bilbo looked over at Kili and smiled at him, “Thank you. These rooms are wonderful…” Moving to the windows, he looked out at them, putting his hand on the glass as he looked out. A sheep looked up at him and he waved a little, cooing quietly until the sheep went back to grazing.

“I read you were a country boy at heart, and thought you might like to see pastures and fields instead of the city, lovely as it is…”

Bilbo bowed his head, a chuckle erupting from his lips, ‘”Thank you, your Highness.”

“Kili,” Kili said sharply. “Kili is just fine, Master Baggins.”

“Bilbo,” the other man couldn’t help but fire back at the Prince. “We should be comfortable with each other if I am to ever decide upon marriage to you.”

“I hope you’re comfortable enough to make that decision,” Kili replied, “in the affirmative, of course.”

“Of course,” Bilbo replied.

Kili looked around the study, tapping his fingers on his thigh before he jumped a bit and said, “Well… I’ll leave you alone for a bit. I think your luggage is in your room so… make yourself comfortable. I’ll probably come back and escort you to supper around 5:30 or so…”

Bilbo nodded, “All right then…”

“After dinner I can show you around? I mean, I don’t want your two weeks consisting of you getting lost all the time,” Kili continued, inching his way out of the room awkwardly. “My Uncle—King Thorin—has gotten lost so many times even having lived here for three decades… but my brother and I… we know this place backwards and forwards,” he paused, the tip of his tongue between his teeth. “Sorry… I’m rambling.

Bilbo couldn’t help but smile. Kili was still young, still in his teens. He seemed so eager to please, and still so nervous about everything. “No problems, Pri—er—Kili. To be shown around by such a masterful tour guide such as yourself sounds very nice."

Kili nodded, and left Bilbo alone.

***

Dinner was just Kili, Fili, and Bofur that night. Bilbo was pleased to get to know Fili and Bofur a bit more than what he knew of them just from news reports. Bofur was humorous but kind, and Kili seemed to get along with him very well It was like Fili, Bofur and Kili had grown up together (hint: they had).

“There were seven of us growing up, because our parents were part of the House of Lords,” said Bofur. “Thraduil’s son Legolas, although he was late to the party; Gimli, son of Gloin; Arwen, daughter of Elrond—“

“She’s dating a son of an international King, did you hear?” Fili asked, taking a sip of his wine.

“Of course she is. Never liked any of us House of Lords brats,” Bofur replied, grinning good-naturedly. Turning back to Bilbo, he continued his explanation: “Then there was me, and Ori, who is the son of the Secretary of State. And of course Fili and Kili.”

“You all grew up together?” Bilbo asked, smiling, “That’s great!”

“It was a happy childhood,” Fili replied with a wide, nostalgic smile on his face.

“What about you, Mister Baggins?” Bofur asked, leaning forward with his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands.

Bilbo’s smile faded, “Well… I never had close friends growing up… besides the people who worked on my property I really didn’t meet anyone else…”

“A shy one, I reckon,” Bofur guessed.

“I guess,” said Bilbo, and hid behind his wine glass.

After dinner, Fili and Bofur left to take a walk in the gardens, and Kili was left with Bilbo. Silence descended on them, and it seemed to stick, even on the tour around the castle, when Kili pointed out the various rooms and wings. Bilbo didn’t mind his host’s silence, as he was in constant awe of the palace. It was like walking in from reality into a fairytale world. There was marble and living plants all down the halls, and of course books in every room, and golden handrails on spiral staircases (also made of marble).

The second floor was one large library, and Bilbo stood in the center, near a giant golden chain that went through a hole the middle of the room and connected to a chandelier in the ballroom directly below them. He leaned back against the handrail surrounding the hole and gaped at the shelves of books, the oak and ash tables with great atlases set upon them, and the circular structure of the room. He gravitated toward the giant globe of the world that hung expertly on the chain in the middle of the room, cocked to one side just like the actual earth was. The globe was made of polished wood, and was hollow.

“This is my favorite room,” Kili said.

“I think it’s my favorite room too,” replied Bilbo, looking for Erebor. He found it right in the middle of Europe where it had been for thousands of years.

Kili looked at the older man from the corner of his eyes, smiling that slight smile of his. “I have all my adventures here… in these books and maps.”

Bilbo nodded, looking up at the peak at the center of the room, making the library’s ceiling look more like that of a circus tent. “You’re forefathers were brilliant,” he breathed.

Kili smiled sadly then, “I’m the only one who really enjoys coming up here. Well, Arwen and Legolas of course loved coming up here, but they’re away at University somewhere in different countries. So it’s just me that comes up here for fun nowadays.”

Bilbo finally touched the globe and marveled at how smooth and well-crafted it was, “That’s… a bit of a shame.”

Kili looked around him, “Anyway… that was the full tour.”

Bilbo nodded and turned to him, “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

***

The first night in the palace was the only real day that Kili and Bilbo actually spoke to each other. For the whole of about a week, they spoke through Fili and Bofur, and sometimes Gandalf and Thorin.

“I thought he was supposed to want me to be his betrothed,” said Bilbo, falling into a chair in Gandalf’s palace office.

Gandalf looked up from his paperwork and peered at Bilbo through tiny spectacles. “I wouldn’t blame the lad too hard for not talking to you,” he said, taking the glasses off.

“Why?” Bilbo asked, a bit affronted, and before Gandalf could answer, one of the maids came in and asked him and Bilbo if they needed anything.

“My pipe, Giselle, and a pot of tea and some cups, of course. A good black tea, please,” replied the old man, giving the girl a smile.

She curtsied and went away. Gandalf turned back to Bilbo. “Kili was told by his uncle and me that the only way he would get his inheritance was if he married: Thorin didn’t want his nephews to be lonely when they moved away to their own acquirements when they were of age. Fili had Bofur, and an engagement was on the horizon even before Fili turned eighteen. Kili didn’t have the charisma to find anyone…”

“He seemed like such a charmer when he was a wee boy,” said Bilbo thoughtfully, “What made him change?”

“What do you mean?” Gandalf asked.

“On the telly he always struck me as a boisterous and mischievous lad, though quite charming,” Bilbo explained. “Then when I met him and spent time with him that first day, he seemed subdued, and only opened up when his brother was around.”

Gandalf stroked his beard just as Giselle came back in with a tray of tea, two teacups, a pot of sugar and a tumbler of cream. She put the tray on the table, with the side that had a carefully placed pipe to Gandalf. He thanked her graciously, she curtsied again, and after she left the room, Gandalf leaned forward to prepare a cup of tea for Bilbo.

“I’m not quite sure about Kili. But you are right. I’ve known the boy since he was small. He was always boisterous even without his brother, though those two were inseparable in their youth. Then, somewhere around middle school Kili became quiet and contemplative, though still boisterous with his brother… and he started going off by himself, without his brother,” he mused, handing Bilbo his cup of tea before preparing his own. “I’m not sure what to make of that.”

“Me neither,” said Bilbo quietly.

After tea, Bilbo sought the company of Bofur and Fili, though he felt more like the third wheel than ever, but he had some questions to ask of the two.

“Did you notice a… change in your brother?” he asked.

Fili looked thoughtful for a moment before he replied, “Everyone did. We just thought… that he was growing up, and that’s who he really was supposed to become.”

Bilbo shook his head, “I always heard that a child carries the same disposition he has into adulthood.”

“Well,” Bofur said, “Kili’s allowed to have his secrets. Perhaps you’ll get something out of him if you decide to marry him within the week, eh?” he laughed a bit, slapping Bilbo’s upper arm, and Bilbo couldn’t say or do anything but laugh sharply, and then turn inward on himself.

Something was up with Kili, and it wasn’t just his immanent need to marry someone for his inheritance…

 _The only person I can really ask is Kili…_ Bilbo decided, and, after his tea with Bofur and Fili, went to his room for a bit to pace before supper.

***

After supper, Bilbo wanted to approach Kili, but Kili was much too fast for Bilbo to catch up with. But the light-haired male was pretty sure he knew where Kili had gone. So he took his time walking up the steps to the second floor, and at the entrance to the grand library, he met up with a very flustered maid.

“Oh! Master Baggins!” the woman cried, her hand flying to her heart.

“Sorry to have startled you… Anita, isn’t it?” he asked, politely. “Is something the matter?”

“Prince Kili is in one of his moods…” Anita told him. “He just hasn’t been the same since he was twelve.”

Bilbo smiled, “Is that so?” he asked, one eyebrow raising.

Anita curtsyed, “Can I get you anything? I just asked Master Kili, but he brushed me off without so much as a howdeedoo…”

“Uhm… no thanks,” replied Bilbo, smiling at her. “Except, well… did anything happen? To make the Prince… change?”

Anita pondered the question for a moment, brown doe eyes rolling to the ceiling. Finally, she returned her gaze to Bilbo, “Actualy… Mister Prime Minister Azog came into power at about that time…”

Bilbo blinked, eyes widening: Azog was a scary looking bald albino man who was easily 6 feet 5 inches or so. He was a good Prime Minister ever since being voted in to office, and he had just won another six years in office back in the fall. It seemed Thorin hated to work with him, but the people of Erebor had the right to vote for Prime Minister as well as the people in their House of Commons. Bilbo’s family always voted for the other guy, since the other guy was Balin, and he had been trying for the Prime Minister office since before Bilbo was born, practically.

Bilbo was about to ask the maid for any other details of whatever theory she was postulating, but she suddenly squeaked, curtsied again, and dashed down the steps. Bilbo turned and saw Kili was glaring at the place where Anita had been.

“Do you always listen to the gossip of the staff, Master Baggins?” Kili asked coldly.

 _Oh, so we’re back to formal names,_ Bilbo thought, _and all because someone mentions the Prime Minister. That’s not suspicious at all._

“I try to make nice with the staff whenever I can. It makes them feel welcome in the household,” Bilbo replied smoothly. “We need to talk.”

“No we don’t,” Kili near growled, turning away from the older male and walking back into the library.

Bilbo followed, and sat down next to the Prince when Kili slumped back in his own seat near one of the round ash tables.

“There’s something wrong,” Bilbo pointed out.

Kili said nothing in response.

“You don’t have to tell me everything, but I do want to know more about you. I want to know why you chose me as your intended, and why you won’t even say three words to me now, unless your brother’s in the room with us,” Bilbo continued.

Kili suddenly slumped forward on to his arms, which he crossed on the table. Bilbo was patient with him, chanting to himself, _Love is patient, love is kind…_

Finally, Kili breathed raggedly, pulling himself back up. He tried looking somewhere on Bilbo’s face, but finally he just rested his eyes on the table. “I thought I could be normal.”

“Being a Prince will never mean you being normal,” Bilbo pointed out.

“I know,” Kili replied. “It wasn’t just that. The last relationship I was in was… difficult. He… He hurt me in ways I… I don’t want to remember.”

Bilbo thought about Azog, _Could he have…?_

“I won’t… hurt you, Kili,” Bilbo said. “I’m… not even sure if I’m going to marry you. I don’t… I don’t know you.”

Bilbo tried taking Kili’s hand, but the younger male flinched away quickly, leaving only their pinkies touching. Kili stared at their hands for the longest time. “I shouldn’t be worried about… about you hurting me. But… he was my first… everything. But he only hurt me in the end,” he finally linked his pinky with Bilbo’s, and a small smile grew on his lips. “My brother and I used to link pinkies like this. It was a bit more subtle than holding hands. I seemed to like when I was a child and it just… carried on.”

Bilbo’s breathing was becoming ragged as he listened to the youngest Oakenshield speak. “You felt betrayed. When this… man hurt you and your brother was… getting too close to someone else… you felt… isolated. Alone. Do you think that everyone will leave you?”

Kili finally looked at Bilbo, straight in the eyes. “I’m afraid _he_ never will…”

Bilbo’s breath finally hitched, and his other hand went up to cup Kili’s face, but the Prince involuntarily flinched away. “I’m sorry,” he said, turning his head back to Bilbo, but Bilbo’s hand had already dropped.

“No, I’m sorry…” Bilbo replied. “I don’t mean to pry, but did… he… physically hurt you, emotionally, sexually?”

“Mostly emotionally but… I also wasn’t ready for sex when he… took me,” Kili replied slowly, his eyes wet.

“I’m sorry,” Bilbo said quickly. He wanted to wipe away Kili’s tears, but he remembered the last time he had tried to touch Kili’s face. “That was… that was not a nice thing to do.”

Kili laughed despite of himself. “I was… practically a child.”

“I’m sorry,” Bilbo said again. “But… if I do decide to be your intended just… just know. I won’t push you into anything you don’t want, and… and I will protect you from him should he come around anymore to… to hurt you,” said Bilbo boldly. He had never fought someone in his life, but at that moment, his heart went out to Kili, and he just wanted to take care of the boy.

Kili looked at the other man’s face, then his eyes roved over Bilbo’s small stature (for a 23-year-old). He smirked slightly, which contrasted with his wet, shining eyes and slight sniffling. “You don’t look like the hero-type.”

Bilbo let out a breathy laugh, “Oh, don’t let my looks fool you. I’m a lionheart under it all.”

Kili smiled, turning away from Bilbo briefly. Then he looked back at Bilbo, a bit shy as he bit his bottom lip. He leaned forward, kissed Bilbo’s cheek, and as he pulled away, asked, “You’ve only got a week before your decision. And I sort of want to keep you.”

“Better make up for lost time then, hm?” Bilbo asked, and reeled at his flirting. His mother had been quite the flirt in her time, but a Baggins was more sensible than that… ‘Hang being sensible. A Prince of Erebor wants me as his husband!’ Bilbo thought, and beamed at Kili.

Kili nodded, “Right then. Can I take you to a pub in the city tomorrow night after supper? It’s a bit less formal than all the meals we’ve had together…”

“And at those you hardly talk anyway,” Bilbo pointed out.

Kili bit his lower lip again, else he smile at Bilbo’s cheeky retort, but Bilbo could see he was about to laugh. He bumped his knee to Kili’s thigh and said, “Oi… you don’t have to hold back on me so much. We’re supposed to have known each other a week by now, living in the same place and everything.”

“You said no pushing,” Kili replied, pouting. Bilbo knew a fake when he saw one, though.

He laughed exasperatingly, “Oh, deeply sorry, Your Highness.”

And Kili actually laughed aloud. The sound was so strange yet so lovely coming from Kili when his brother wasn’t around to instigate it. Bilbo smiled despite himself.

 _I think this one might keep me…_ Bilbo thought, heart racing.


	3. Kili's Fear

The day part of the pub visit was of little importance to Bilbo’s memory: He read in his room most of the day, and ate with Fili, Kili, and Bofur for breakfast and lunch, and had some snacks delivered to him in his room. Anita was the one who delivered them, and so he chatted with her for a couple minutes before the maid would curtsy and leave Bilbo to himself. At supper Thorin decided to show his face alongside Gandalf. It was interesting, nonetheless, to eat with the King of Erebor himself. Bilbo still got the impression that Thorin didn’t approve of him, which was strange because Bilbo had been on a list of wealthy landowners, and Kili had chosen him as a potential groom.

As soon as dinner was formally finished (Thorin leaving the table was usually the sign of this), Kili, Fili, Bofur and Bilbo made ready to leave for the city.

“How will we get there?” Bilbo asked.

“We have a driver,” Fili replied. “Who doubles as a body guard.”

Bilbo raised one eyebrow at this, but followed his companions down into the dark of the parking garage. There a black limousine was waiting for them, the driver leaning on one of the concrete pillars near it.

“Hello, Bard,” said Bofur, high-fiving the burly older man.

The man’s frightening stare soon melted away and he smiled at Bofur, Fili, and Kili, shaking their hands or high-fiving them. Then he turned to Bilbo, still radiating kindness, “And this is the potential intended of our youngest Prince…” he said, and shook Bilbo’s hand, his big hand warm around Bilbo’s smaller one.

Bilbo smiled politely, “Hello, um… Mister Bard.”

“Please,” said Bard, chuckling, “Just call me Bard.”

Bilbo flushed, but nodded, “All right then… Bard.”

“Enough with the pleasantries!” Bofur cried, already opening the door for himself.

“Oi!” Bard yelled, and took the car door from him. “I know _your_ driver lets you touch his car, but this is my baby, and you’ll not get your fingerprints all over her!”

Bilbo turned to Kili as Bofur ducked into the car, laughing, and Fili followed, smiling. Kili’s eyebrows rose a bit, and he was pursing his lips so he wouldn’t smile, but Bilbo knew he so wanted to say something snide to him.

***

They got to the pub, and the younger generation was sent in ahead while Bard found a parking space for his ‘baby.’

Inside, Bofur got the first round of drinks, while Fili and Kili found a nice booth in the back.

Bard came inside after a few minutes and went to the bar to give the kids some space. In the meantime, Bofur was telling a rather… interesting tale.

“So, Kili was a girl for about a week in elementary school,” Bofur had started, and Bilbo couldn’t help but grab Kili’s forearm and look at him incredulously, but a smile wide on his face, “Don’t tell me, you had this long of hair then?” He twirled his finger around a strand of Kili’s hair, but then Kili yanked his face away, slapping Bofur on the knee with his free hand.

“It was longer,” Fili answered, laughing. “Miss Janey, his kindergarten teacher, thought he was a girl for about a week before I went to Thorin, and he called in to set her straight. They had an all gender-inclusive bathroom, just one in the room, that all the kids went to, and during recess Kili was the only boy who would play with the girls.”

“They were doing quiet things like picking flowers and making daisy chains!” Kili said, crossing his arms over his chest. “It wasn’t my fault that you,” he pointed at his brother, “used to frolick in the fields with me when we were boys… I was merely acclimatized to being quite gender neutral.”

Fili’s mouth opened incredulously, but Bofur and Bilbo were giggling violently at this point, only one pint of beer in them each.

The rest of the evening was spent in a similar fashion.

“So… is it true that your eyes locked at a state dinner and you realized how attractive the other was?” Bilbo asked of Fili and Kili.

“You’ve seen the televised report of our meeting?” Fili replied, rolling his eyes. “All that bullshit?”

Bilbo nodded, “But… you told me you grow up together? What’s the truth?”  
Bofur snorted, “Yeah, we did grow up together. But the news crews made up this bollocks story about us only really noticing each other when our hormones finally hit or something equally nauseating, and at a State dinner, which we never attended until Fili turned eighteen last year.”

“How did it really happen, then?” Bilbo asked.

Fili smiled, taking Bofur’s hand, “It was my first day in high school. I had been told sometime after my eighth grade graduation that in high school there were dances that we had to bring dates to. Of course, it didn’t matter which gender partner you brought, but to me, the dances themselves was the most terrifying thing about high school.”

“When I asked how his first day went, he spilled the entire story about his fears of the high school dances. Of course, I was junior then, been in high school two years. So I told him he could always ask me. Don’t know why I said it: I never went to any of those dances if could help it,” Bofur explained.

“And we went to every dance together since, and even when he got to university he made time to come to the dances with me,” Fili said, squeezing his fiancé’s hand. “We realized that was love right there, and have been together since then. Though, technically, we had been together since I was a freshman in high school…”

Bilbo smiled at the couple, “That’s adorable.”

“What about you? Any high school sweethearts you thought you’d always be with?” Bofur asked, “Or were you too shy for that?”

“The latter, I’m afraid,” answered Bilbo, “I only had crushes, but I was too scared to ask them to any dances, and none of the girls every showed any interest in me beyond my wealth. I was homeschooled by my mother, so I didn’t actually go to school anyway. But there was a school just off the Bag End property, and I always played with the kids there at recess.”

“Why were you the only one homeschooled?” Kili asked. ”Because you were the heir of Bag End?”

Bilbo shrugged, “I guess,” he replied. “I went to a public university, though briefly, before I was pulled out when my parents died…”

“And your favorite room in the palace is the library?” Fili asked.

“Just because I stopped going to school doesn’t mean I actually ever left,” Bilbo replied calmly. “We’re always learning, and so we’re always at school… if you like think of your life like that. I know lads like you two might not…”

Fili and Bofur pretended to gag at each other, and Bilbo couldn’t help but chuckle. “Well, to each there own,” he said, turning to Kili, who had suddenly gone eerily quiet. “Kili?”

But Kili didn’t seem to hear him. So Bilbo moved his eyes to where the younger Prince was staring. Somehow, Azog also frequented that bar they were in that night, and he was sitting not two booths over, his back turned away from their booth (thank the heavens), laughing and speaking with some rather scary-looking cronies. They were a boisterous crowd, but in the nasty sort of way. Bilbo turned back to Kili and accidently brushed his hands against the younger lad’s. Kili jumped and scrambled out of the booth like he had been shocked (which, to be fair, he had). He scrubbed his hands over his face before he bolted for the bathroom. Fili and Bofur watched this with worried faces, of course, but it was Bilbo who said, “I’ll check on him…”

He was glad to find that there were two bathrooms, both non-gender specific. The one Kili had run to was the one nearest the door of the fancy pub, and as Bilbo pushed at it, it swung open. Bilbo was somewhat glad that Kili didn’t have the forethought to lock himself in…

He noticed that Kili was sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest on the floor near the toilet, staring at the wall. The eighteen-year-old Prince wasn’t crying or rocking back and forth, he was just… staring blankly at the dark blue tiled wall like the world was nothing to him. Bilbo sank to his knees beside him. He didn’t worry about people walking in on them; he was sure everyone had seen them come in here. Even if it was a fancy pub, people still chose the bathrooms for their sexual rendezvous’. Not that Bilbo would, but it was nice to know that social conventions still existed.

“Kili,” Bilbo said softly.

Kili continued staring at the dark crimson tile, “I had forgotten,” he said, shakily, after a while.

“About Azog?” Bilbo asked, and couldn’t help but add, “I’m flattered,” with a bit of an sharp edge to it.

Kili didn’t laugh. Of course he wouldn’t.

“I had forgotten he existed outside his office and my nightmares. He always… always talked about his cronies and how meetings with them always made him… want to blow off steam. Of course he would want to come have a… have a drink. I mean… I’m eighteen now, so he no longer needs me…”

Bilbo just sat, his hands between his knees, looking at Kili’s profile as Kili stared forward and talked of his worst nightmare.

“He chewed me up and spat me out,” Kili said, turning his head slightly to Bilbo, though he couldn’t quite meet the other man’s eyes. “When I was twelve, he came on to me, took me…” Kili blinked back tears, but still they came, “And he did that once or twice a week until I turned eighteen… and then he was done. Everything became my fault: Becoming a legal adult especially. My eighteenth birthday present from him was the most painful… painful… well,” Kili slumped more, if that could be possible. “Or so I thought. It’s been four months now, and I realize… it wasn’t ever love he had for me. It was the thrill of a challenge, or taking out his frustrations on someone, or taking what couldn’t really consent, not at the age that I was…”

“So he was… physically violent, too?” Bilbo asked carefully.

Kili breathed in, sniffling. “Ori has pictures somewhere… we couldn’t get a decent photo of me for six years. But thank goodness for photo correction. But Ori never actually knew why I had so many bruises on my face and neck and wrists… he never saw me fully naked either, thank god…”

Bilbo gulped, “That’s why you were constantly alone. You didn’t want people to ask you what happened because if you had said you were with someone, and that someone hadn’t actually been with you, they would have ratted you out and the truth would have come up. Why didn’t you tell anyone? Thorin could have done something…”

Kili scoffed, “Azog told me he’d kill me if I told anyone, especially my uncle. You know how much they hate each other.” Bilbo did. “By the end of everything he knew I was a loyal fuck,” Kili added, his voice barely above a whisper.

Bilbo was struck physically by both Kili’s words and his tone: disenchanted, sarcastic, and almost… dead. Bilbo wanted to put his arms around the younger boy and hold him close, but he refrained for Kili’s sake. “He had no right to make you feel that way.”

Kili’s face suddenly fell forward into his knees, and he began sobbing in earnest.

Bilbo took a chance and pressed his hand on Kili’s back. Kili didn’t flinch, but instead turned to Bilbo and threw his arms around Bilbo’s neck, burrowing his face into Bilbo’s shirt like a small child. Bilbo had to lift himself on his knees to compensate for their height difference, but as soon as they fit better together, he put his arms around the other boy, humming a tune that he obviously had to slow down meter-wise to make comforting: An old walking song from the Shire.

There was suddenly a sharp knock on the door, and Fili’s voice: “Oi! You two better not be snogging in there!”

Bilbo couldn’t help but chuckle, then yelled back, “No! Not anymore, thanks to you.”

Kili was done being scared and sad, obviously, for he shot an incredulous expression to Bilbo, but Bilbo raised a finger to his lips, the smallest of smiles forming there.

“Disgusting little buggers,” they heard Bofur mutter, but he was clearly teasing them.

When they heard nothing else for the longest time, Kili and Bilbo busted out in quiet peels of laughter, and Bilbo fell back on his bum again, taking Kili down with him. They giggled more, until gravity had pulled Kili down until he was nose and nose with Bilbo, and they stopped. Kili froze, and Bilbo had to remember to breathe, to help Kili anyway he could. “You don’t have to do anything now if you can’t, Kili. Don’t rush yourself…”

The other boy slowly breathed out, and ducked his head into Bilbo’s neck.

Bilbo breathed easier, but began rambling anyway (it was a nervous habit of his), “I like you Kili. I really do. But I’m concerned about your… past relationship, and I want you to know what true affection is. So… tell me what you need _right now_. Not what you think _I_ need, or what you think I _want_ , or even what _you_ want. Tell me what you _need_ …”

“I need to get away from him,” Kili whispered. “I need to go home.”

***

It was a challenge getting Kili back out into the pub, explaining as little as possible to Fili and Bofur, and then Bard, but they were soon on the way back to the palace. In the car, Fili and Kili fell asleep on each other’s shoulders, and Bofur and Bilbo looked at their respective dates with smiles on their faces. Bilbo, especially, was in awe of how Kili’s face twisted in a serene smile as he slept.

The brothers were cruelly awakened when they got back to the palace’s parking garage, but they were soon back on their way to sleep as the four of the younger generation, at least, went up in the elevator and then into the palace to their respective rooms. Bofur and Bilbo said good night to one another, and went in opposite directions to their own rooms after Fili and Kili were properly put to bed.

Bilbo went to his room, paced a bit, looked for something to read, and finding nothing in his room, at least, took a walk down the hallways, pretty much exploring the place had he had done countless other times in boredom. The hallways were dim, and the empty rooms around him were darkening, as it was getting later and later into the evening. As Bilbo rounded a corner, though, he saw a light blazing from one of the rooms near the end of the hallway. Curious, he followed the light until he came to one of the other unclaimed study rooms. There, he saw that Thorin was working late, pen in hand. The fire was blazing in the fireplace behind him, casting sinister shadows on the walls.

Bilbo was about to walk quickly past the room, but Thorin had already seen him, a bit startled that anyone else was up late.

“Oh, good evening, Master Baggins.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so, so sorry. Azog will get what's coming to him. I promise.
> 
> But still. I am so, so sorry.


	4. Thorin's Slice of Life

“Master Baggins,” King Thorin said looking up from his task. “Why are you here? I thought you went out with Bofur and my nephews.”

“I did,” replied Bilbo, standing awkwardly on the threshold of the room.

“Did one or both the boys get pissed again,” Thorin wondered, but before Bilbo could answer said, “I’m always telling the boy to go slower but they never listen…”

Bilbo decided that was the best excuse for the shortened excursion, “Kili had a bit too much, yeah. I spent the last half of the night in the bathroom with him, keeping that ridiculously long hair out of his face as he bent over the toilet.”

“Ah, I’m sorry, Master Baggins,” Thorin replied. “His brother should have kept an eye on him…”

“We were having too much of a good time to really notice how much we had consumed,” said Bilbo, “but thank goodness we had a designated driver.”

“Well, there’s that,” Thorin said looking back down at his paperwork, and sighing heavily at it.

“What are you working on?” Bilbo asked, taking a tentative step into the room. It was a strange room, with purple-red paint on the walls that was rather more feminine than any of the other rooms’ colors. There were pictures of fairies and equestrians on the walls, and the books in the shelves across from the gilded fireplace were mostly romance titles. There was a large picture of a dark-haired woman in a graduation gown and cap on the wall, surrounded by a blonde man, and a dark-haired man: The Princess Dis, Prince Frerin, and King Thorin, perhaps, on the Princess’s graduation from the University of Ered Luin. Bilbo looked at the décor, then at King Thorin, and from the comparison, decided the room must have been the Princess’s, before she died.

“Parliament is rewriting the landowning tax to incorporate the wealthier classes. For some odd reason, equality is taking a bit too long—mainly because Parliament refuse to speak proper English.”

“Beg pardon?” Bilbo asked, eyebrows past his hairline.

Thorin looked up, blue eyes landing on Bilbo’s incredulous face, “This has been in the works for a long time. The Houses seem to think that it’s my job to write up everything, but I can’t make head nor tails of the lingo in any of the members’ notes.”

Bilbo smiled, “I am a landowner, Your Majesty,” he said, and shrugged one shoulder humbly, “Would you like my help?”

Thorin blinked up at Bilbo, who was already making his way over to Thorin’s side. “Well… all right,” said Thorin, but he really couldn’t say no because Bilbo was already deciphering the notes and translating them into normal terms for him.

Thorin instead wrote down the words Bilbo was translating into the new document. He found the work was much easier with the help. When King Thorin finally set his pen down, he scrubbed his face down with one of his big hands and said, “I don’t see why any of the lazy lobs in the House of Lords couldn’t help me with that…”

“They’re all landowners themselves, aren’t they?” Bilbo asked, mostly for clarification.

Thorin laughed, looking up at Bilbo, “They are. But they’re lazy buggers who haven’t done any of the real work.”

“Well, I haven’t either,” said Bilbo, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Really? But… you’re from the country,” Thorin uttered, surprised. “Don’t you plant corn and help birth the new cows in spring?”

“Not anymore,” Bilbo replied coolly, “I still have workers at my house and in my fields. The only thing different is that I live on the land I own, and so I know what’s going on because I’m always out in the fields during planting and tending and harvest,” Bilbo said, “My workers won’t _let_ me do any work, but I sure as hell don’t leave my property in the hands of someone else.”

“Except here you are,” said Thorin, raising an eyebrow pointedly.

“Except here I am,” answered the other softly.

Bilbo noticed that there were pictures on Thorin’s desk. He noticed one photograph of Princess Dis and Prince Frerin. Another had Kili and Fili when they were wee boys, about nine and ten. But the one that caught Bilbo’s eye especially was a picture of two boys with graduation caps on their heads, their arms around each other and big stupid grins on their faces.

Bilbo pointed, “The lad on the left is you. Who’s your… friend?”

Thorin gazed at the picture with such softness that Bilbo was shocked.

“That’s Dwalin, my best friend,” Thorin replied, either ignoring Bilbo’s shock or not even noticing it. “His family and mine are close. His brother is Balin, our bi-yearly Prime Minister candidate.”

Bilbo nodded, “So… where is Dwalin now?”

“Shepherding,” Thorin said, glancing back at the blond man. “He went into the military, but after training and in this time of peace, he settled down in a cottage just outside the palace to tend sheep. I insisted he stay close…”

Bilbo nodded, moving to the window. The study they were currently occupying was on the west side of the mountain, and so Bilbo squinted, seeing if he could see the Shire in the distance. It wasn’t quite like that, as the Shire was a long way off, and Bag End even more so.

“Do you miss the Shire?” Thorin asked suddenly. “ _Will_ you miss it?”

Bilbo turned back to him, and padded over to a large dark red armchair on the other side of the desk from Thorin, “I’m getting over it. I’m sure if I marry your nephew, I’ll have some place to be master of alongside him.”

Thorin nodded, “You think you’ll marry my Kili?”

“It becomes more and more of a possibility with every hour,” Bilbo replied.

Thorin picked up his papers and put them away in a folder before folding his hands over the polished oak. “He’s had such an unhappy past…” he said.

Bilbo nearly jumped, memories of the tense moments on the floor of the pub bathroom flooding his imagination.

“What… What do you mean, Your Majesty?” Bilbo stuttered, not wanting to say anything about the youngest Prince of Erebor and the current Prime Minister to his uncle, especially if he didn’t actually know.

“Well, with not knowing his parents,” Thorin said, “Fili hardly knew them either, but he told me he had flashes of their faces, and of good memories of them.”

Bilbo wasn’t sure if he was relieved or not.

“They were only babies when their parents died, weren’t they?” Bilbo asked.

Thorin nodded, “Kili used to call Fili ‘daddy’ when he learned to talk. Of course Fili set him straight after a while,” he paused, then added, “It was heartbreaking.”

Bilbo nodded in understanding, “And Kili was an… energetic child before he turned, ah, surly in his preteen years?”

“He was such a naughty bugger, he and his brother both,” Thorin replied, a nostalgic smile on his face. “I was surprised when he changed, but his father was the same brooding type…”

“Your part of the family has a knack for being silly, then?” Bilbo asked, incredulous.

Thorin looked at Bilbo as if trying to decipher him, “In our youths, my brother and sister and I were more free than most. After Dis died, my brother moved out of the country and is presumed dead, and I? Well, I was King, since my sister could not be Queen. I had to sober up to run a country…”

“You could have gotten married,” Bilbo said, “Historically, your grandfather and father both ruled alongside their wives. One of your ancestors, I believe, had a male consort with whom he shared his ruling, and they adopted a male and female heir. The female, the oldest, married a male, but no matter what, there was shared power between the spouses.”

Thorin nodded, “With Kili and Fili… I often thought about marriage, but with everything that happened since then I never had time. Fili was often stuck looking after his brother, and I had a country to run.”

“You know, my father said something like that,” Bilbo said, smiling a little. “He had Bag End to run after his father died. My grandmother, bless her heart, suggested marriage to a country girl and my father refused outright. And then along came my mother, fresh out of University, all the way from Scotland. She was the one who had to woo my father, and a year later they were married and his life was so much more relaxed with the shared responsibilities.”

Thorin raised one eyebrow, “Yes, well, if someone would like to take my mind off the wooing that would be fine with me… in the meantime, I have work from dawn until the midnight moon shines straight overhead.”

Bilbo’s smile widened, “I’ll make a note of it. Any dashing young lads or feisty lasses out there will know what it is you want.”

Thorin’s face twisted into a mixture of shock and incredulousness, “Have you always been so… playful, Master Baggins?”

Bilbo stood up and took a turn about the room, looking at the titles of the books as he went, “It’s a Took trait.”

“A what trait?”

“My mother’s maiden name was Took,” Bilbo replied, “Belladonna Took, of Aberdeen.”

“She was a long way from home when she decided to woo your father,” Thorin commented.

“She was 24 years old, had her inheritance, and was an adventurer like all Tooks seem to turn out to be,” Bilbo replied.

Silence fell over them, the fire the only thing seeming to say anything.

“Well… thank you for your help,” Thorin said, gesturing to the document in front of him. He had a feeling Bilbo was leaving, and stood up.

Bilbo bowed his head at the threshold to the room, “It was nice talking to you, Your Majesty.”

 “You too, Master Baggins,” Thorin replied, nodding.

***

Bilbo could not stop thinking about Azog on his way back to his rooms. His mind turned to how little King Thorin seemed to know about his nephews and, particularly, Kili’s struggles with Azog and all the scars the Prime Minister had left in his wake.

_Scars…_

Once he was in bed, Bilbo tried to shut his eyes and sleep, but his eyes kept on popping open, and he would just wind up staring at the ornate ceiling, wondering first which of the palace artists had designed those winged stallions and dragon faces, and then how he could expose Azog as a child molester and abuser, and a very bad man.

He drifted off lightly thinking about this, but heard Kili’s voice in his mind: _Ori’s got pictures… pictures… never a good picture of me then… Ori…_

“Ori,” Bilbo said, sitting up quickly. The air was cool around his naked torso and he shivered a bit.

As he settled back into the many cushions littering the top half of the bed, he thought _I need to meet Ori… and the rest of the Lords’ children… but mostly Ori…_


	5. Bilbo's Prince

Bilbo was just blinking his eyes, waking with the sun on his face. _That’s odd_ , he thought to himself, _I thought I closed the blinds last night…_

He rubbed his eyes, and realized that he felt something close to his thigh, something heavier than the duvet he had slept under. His vision was still fuzzy, but things soon became clear and he made eye contact with the intruder.

“Morning,” Kili said, a stupid grin on his face.

“Kili!” Bilbo yelped, pulling the duvet up to his chin as he sat up. “Really! A little warning, please, that you’re the one giving me my wake-up call.”

Kili laughed, “Couldn’t help but surprise you, Bilbo,” he said, winking. “I’ve planned something for today, and I just couldn’t wait to find you…”

“Did you have to wake me up, though?” Bilbo asked, “You could have found me after breakfast, I’m not that hard to find.”

“What fun would that be?” Kili asked, chuckling.

_Naughty bugger indeed,_ Bilbo thought, flushing.

“Besides,” Kili went on, “I wanted to spend the entire day with you. I’m making up for lost time, remember? And I really, really want to keep you. Ring any bells?”

Bilbo’s flush deepened, and Kili couldn’t help but try and move the duvet down a bit: “Jeesh, how far does that blush even go?”

Bilbo of course swatted his hand away. Kili flinched a bit at this action. “Oh, sorry,” Bilbo said, taking his hand back quickly.

Kili reached for Bilbo’s hand and pulled at it, kissing his knuckles lightly. Bilbo tried to bite back a shiver. Kili smiled, “Don’t be. I… it’s a force of habit. But I know you won’t hurt me.”

“No, I won’t,” Bilbo reiterated, “Not on purpose, anyway.”

Cautiously, Kili’s chosen-intended reached his other hand to the back of the Prince’s neck and held it there, massaging the skin and little bit of hair he felt. Kili purred, leaning forward so that he face-planted into Bilbo’s chest.

“Forget breakfast, I want to just do this all morning…” Kili said.

Bilbo’s stomach growled, though, and Kili pushed himself up, “Though if you’re going to protest so much, I’ll call for the maid right away.”

“You can leave, is what you can do,” Bilbo said, a slight smile on his face, “so I can get dressed and go down to breakfast.”

Kili pushed Bilbo back down on the mattress, “No, no… let me get a maid. Ever had breakfast in bed before?”

Bilbo scoffed and made to get up, only he realized he didn’t sleep with any clothes on (save his underpants) so he stopped, “I only do that for my birthday…”

“Well, you’re doing it now. I don’t want to have to share you too much today…”

“All right, then,” Bilbo replied, flushing at the sheer possessiveness in Kili’s tone.

They were soon both under the covers (which Bilbo had protested against, he really had) and enjoying toast and eggs and berries and tea together, Kili trying desperately to feed Bilbo, and Bilbo pushing his hand away and laughing, telling the other: “Oh please!”

“I haven’t had a romantic encounter ever, Bilbo Baggins,” Kili scolded, still smiling. “I’ve only ever seen these things in movies and television!”

“You watch romances?” Bilbo asked, surprised.

“Ironically,” Kili replied, and Bilbo gave him a pointed stare. Kili amended himself, sighing, “Arwen made me watch the five-hour series on _Pride and Prejudice_ , as well as some other chick flicks when it was only she, Ori and I one night.”

“Of course she did,” Bilbo replied smugly, “Good girl.”

“It was torture,” Kili groaned, his head falling onto Bilbo’s still bare shoulder.

“It’s character-building,” Bilbo said, picking up a strawberry and holding it up to Kili’s face once the younger boy had straightened up. “You paid attention, though?”

Kili blinked at the piece of fruit in Bilbo’s fingers, and then at Bilbo, smirking a little bit. He leaned tentatively forward, poking his tongue out first before closing his mouth around the berry and pulling back. He put his hand in front of his mouth to chew and swallow, then he giggled when his eyes locked with Bilbo’s. Bilbo had flushed again, and his mouth was open slightly, looking at the younger male with an expression of surprise.

“You’re like that strawberry I just enjoyed, Master Baggins,” Kili said, still grinning. “Plump and red, and I bet most delicious.”

“That was the most lewd display, I have ever seen,” Bilbo replied, turning away from the Prince and cursing his good looks and charm. “And that comment was even worse!”

Kili laughed again, loud and clear. “I did pay attention to those films, Master Baggins… I was only doing what they did…”

“Do what they say, not what they do…” Bilbo replied, taking a peak over at his bedmate.

“Boring,” Kili replied.

A moment passed between them, and Bilbo was drawn to a faint dusting of blue and purple under the younger man’s eye. He looked away from it quickly, covering Kili’s hand with his own lightly as it lay between them on the comforter.

“Can I meet your friends soon?” Bilbo asked boldly, remembering his resolve to help the youngest Prince.

Kili smiled, “Well… yeah. You want to meet my teacher in romance, then?”

“Well, yes,” Bilbo replied, “And the others. Gimli and Legolas and Ori, I mean…”

“Well…” Kili said, “Ori and Gimli are here in Dale, but Arwen and Legolas don’t come back from their respective universities until June or July…”

Bilbo blinked. It was March, just about. It looked like it should be summer outside, though, but that was just the weather in Erebor: hot from March to the end of September, and then freezing cold from October to February: like clockwork. No extensions on either summer or winter.

“And Ori and Gimli?” Bilbo asked.

“Gimli goes to high school in town, so he’s home by 3:30 every afternoon,” Kili replied, “Ori is homeschooled, though he just got into Dale’s top university for next fall… And there’s always the weekends, when both of them are free…ish. Oh! But Gimli Skypes Legolas almost every night, and he knows how to get two or three people into a Skype conversation, so Arwen can meet you too, and Gimli can still talk to Legolas over Skype.”

“That sounds like fun. When should we all get together? Grant it, _I_ should still be here…” Bilbo said, pursing his lips.

“You say that like you won’t say yes,” Kili replied, a note of sadness in his voice.

“I’m not quite convinced that you really want to keep me,” Bilbo replied, crossing his hands over his chest and turning up his nose slightly. Then he gave his companion a slight wink and a smile.

Kili took out his cell phone. “Saturday always works,” he told Bilbo.

Kili dialed a number, pressing the phone to his ear, “Gimli, bro! – Yes, I know it’s early and you have class in two minutes. – Shut up! You’ll do fine. It’s your last year, anyway! – Anyway, I’ll let you go, but first, I want you to tell Ori that you and the rest of our sorry lot are getting together on Saturday night-- - Yes, Saturday! – Yes I know! I had Ori’s Sunday LARPing thing in mind. – Anyway, you’re meeting my potential betrothed Saturday, and I need Skype to work it’s magic to bring Arwen and Legolas onto the same screen. – Yes, I know, but I’m busy at the moment and this is faster. – Yes, with Bilbo. – You shut up right this minute. – I could say a few things to Legolas, you know, that you want to, what was it? Kiss him straight on those thin, pale li-- - Thought you’d see things my way. – Cool, see you all Saturday, then. Call me if there are any problems. – Yep, love you too, bro. – Good luck on that exam, I know you studied your arse off. – Bye.”

He snapped his phone shut and grinned over at Bilbo, “Now that that’s done, shall I leave you alone for a wee bit until, say, ten?”

Bilbo was surprised, but he looked at the clock on the wall. “You’re going to leave me alone for an hour? What about not sharing me today?”

“You won’t go anywhere, and everyone else is busy or elsewhere. And I need to triple check some things,” Kili replied, popping another strawberry in his mouth. “Wear outdoorsy clothes. I’ll be waiting in the kitchens.”

And he was off.

***

The kitchens were in the basement, just above the parking garage. They were cavernous and often quite warm with all the chaos and food and rushing bodies. Kili seemed quite at home here, sitting at the island on a stool eating an apple. He finished it just as Bilbo approached him and grinned, standing up and taking Bilbo’s hands. “There you are…” he said.

One of the cooks set an old-fashioned picnic basket next to Kili and he grinned, thanking the man before picking it up, and still holding one of Bilbo’s hands, dragging the other male down to a different door. They walked down some steps in the dark until they came out on the east side of the mountain. “Are we going for a picnic?” Bilbo asked, feeling a bit dumb.

“Yes. Do you know how to ride a horse?” Kili asked, and Bilbo suddenly smelled the stench of horses.

“I had sturdy plowing ponies back at Bag End, but those were working horses,” Bilbo replied.

Kili paused at the door to an old wooden farmhouse, putting the picnic basket in Bilbo’s hand before opening the door. Immediately Bilbo smelled hay and dung, and he heard the whickering of curious horses. “Well, these horses are riding horses…” said Kili, making a ‘ta da!’ gesture with his arms.

“And I’ve never ridden a horse in my life!” Bilbo cried.

Kili pulled Bilbo close and put a finger on his companion’s lips. “Shh… trust me,” he looked around the stables until he found what he was looking for, “I coached Ori in the art of horse-back riding for a LARPing thing he was doing, and he was a master horseman in a week. Besides… old Myrtle here is a friendly, mothering sort,” Kili said, patting the said horse’s nose. She wickered softly at him and he kissed her brow. “Saddle her up, please?” he asked of the stable keeper.

Bilbo was still terrified of the prospect, but he remembered that trust was essential for the both of them, and took the reins from Eddie once Myrtle was saddled and ready to go.

Kili put the contents of the picnic basket into stable bags and hefted them on to the back of the black stallion he had chosen. They led their chosen mounts to the doors of the stables and out into the sunshine. “We’ll head south, towards that copse of trees,” Kili said, pointing west, “Shall I help you up?”

Bilbo nodded, and Kili laced his fingers together and caught Bilbo’s foot. Bilbo stumbled into the saddle, but Myrtle was quite calm and allowed Bilbo to wiggle a bit. Kili took her reins and walked the old mare around a little, letting Bilbo get used to riding the big animal. He also taught Bilbo the commands the horse was used to. After 30 minutes of practice, Bilbo climbed off the horse and clambered on again without Kili’s help. Kili, pleased with his work, jumped on to his stallion’s back and urged the beast forward.

“See, it’s easy after a while…” Kili said as Bilbo clicked his tongue for Myrtle to surge forward.

Kili hung back a bit so Bilbo could catch up, and soon they were walking side-by-side, horse-by-horse.

***

Kili and Bilbo walked their horses to the copse of trees to the south of the palace. Bilbo kept looking back, and saw that the stable keeper was walking behind them on an appaloosa mare. “Is he your bodyguard?” he asked.

“Eddie? He likes the horses more,” Kili answered, “Fili and I called him Beorn, the Bear-Man, after that figure in the Old Stories.”

Bilbo chuckled. The man behind them did look a lot like a bear, especially from the distance, “I wasn’t aware bears rode horses, though. Even the Bear-Man,” Bilbo said, and they both burst out into high-pitched laughter.

They reached the copse of trees, and as Bilbo got off his horse, he looked behind him and saw they were quite alone, “I guess no one wants you dead?”

Kili smiled, “Beorn is… around,” he replied. “And I have my lionheart with me.”

Bilbo flushed as he tied Myrtle to the nearest tree. The little copse was a very pretty place, with a small clearing by a stream at one side. It seemed enchanted, and Bilbo wondered if the Princes had come here a lot. The grass seemed in tact, though, and there was nothing to make Bilbo suspect that they ever had.

Kili seemed to latch on to Bilbo’s thought process as he lay out a blanket, “This was sanctuary,” he said, pulling the saddlebags off his horse and sitting down on the blanket. “When our group of friends were younger, we used to play here.”

Bilbo carefully sat on the blanket as he continued looking around him.

“We called it Rivendell,” Kili continued, passing out the finger foods from the saddlebags: cheese, crackers, grapes, and a little packet of smoked salmon. “When we were smaller, the stream was our river, and one of the trees deeper in the copse was big enough to be a sort of living space. We always pretended that was something like… I don’t know, a last homely house for travelers on adventures.”

Bilbo smiled, “There is a river that runs under Bag End called the Brandywine River. I thought for the longest time when I was young, that that was where my father and mum got their stores of brandy and wine for the Festivals.”

Kili giggled, “You were such a darling little child, I can tell.”

“A terror, actually,” Bilbo replied, blushing. “I was more a Took than a Baggins in my youth, I’m afraid.”

“Took?” Kili asked.

“Took was my mother’s maiden name,” Bilbo found himself explaining again. “She and her family were all… adventurous folk.” Bilbo smiled at Kili, and they went back to eating.

“Did you ever play with the other children?” Kili asked, “In your village?”

Bilbo swallowed a grape and nodded, “Of course. Though, none of the other children stuck around past my pre-teen years like your friends did…”

Kili shrugged, “Once you’re in the company of a warrior elf princess bent on rescue your Dwarvish companion from the clutches of a rogue Wood-Elf, you never really want to stay away from the group of friends playing those Otherworldly creatures, no matter what side they played on…”

“Yeah, we usually played those games too,” said Bilbo laughing. “Though I was a bit smaller than both a dwarf or an elf could be, so I was simply known as a Halfling.”

“And the others?” Kili asked, laughing.

“Well, the taller ones were Dwarves, or Elves, or Dragons. And the smaller ones were Halflings who were always the creatures being enslaved and rescued… I think only once did I wind up freeing my own kind, so to speak, from one of the more ghastly of the Dragons…”

“That’s something,” said Kili, smiling.

“I think all the talk of Elves and Dwarves helped me into my studying Literature and Writing in university the short time I was there…” Bilbo mused.

Kili stared at him, “You were a great reader?”

“I was and am almost always reading, yes.” Bilbo replied.

“That’s adorable,” Kili said, “You really are just fitting my little box of the perfect husband, you know. People say, once they know me, that I’m rather outgoing. So I’ll have a quiet little husband to come home to, to complete me!”

“You did _not_ just say that,” Bilbo said, huffing lightly. He couldn’t stop smiling, though.

“I like smart people,” Kili told him. “Uncle Thorin is quite smart, and so’s my little group of friends. Arwen and Ori know everything about history and writing and grammar, and Legolas knows math and history, and Gimli is a well-rounded nerd, as well as a bit of a jock. Fili, Bofur and I all get the best grades we can, though Bofur seems more musical than either of us.”

“What are you planning on studying when you get into University?” Bilbo asked.

Kili shrugged, “I don’t know yet. Fili’s doing politics and history, mostly because he’s the heir to the throne. But I can pretty much do anything I want…”

“What do you like to do?” Bilbo asked.

Kili shrugged again. “The only things I’m good at are playing the violin and making an absolute fool of myself.”

“I’m sure the second one isn’t true…” Bilbo replied. “I haven’t heard the first one for myself, but I know for a fact you haven’t yet shown me the second one, either.”

“You’re sweet,” Kili said, curling his pinky around Bilbo’s. “When we were younger, Legolas wanted to be a film-maker for a short time, so he made all of us dress up and we shot a thirty minute short about an Elf assassin, and I was the comic relief…”

“Well there’s something,” Bilbo prompted.

“What’s something?” Kili asked.

“Stand-up comedy, or comedy acting, or something. You seem to like going in front of the camera…” Bilbo explained.

Kili blinked, and then nodded his head slowly, looking back at Bilbo with a very slight smile on his face, “Maybe…”

***

“Heard you two went out on the horses,” said Bofur that night at dinner.

Fili cooed, and Bilbo looked to the table, blushing, as Kili said, “Yeah? Well, you two were off being adorable yourselves, so I had to one up you.”

“It’ll never happen, laddie,” Bofur replied, putting an arm around his fiancé, “We’ll always trump you as the most adorable couple in the land.”

“No, I’m pretty sure when Legolas comes back and Gimli finally tells him how he feels, _they_ will be the cutest couple because they will be making up for lost time,” Kili pointed out. “It’s gonna be sooooooon.”

“What, _you_ don’t want to be the cutest couple ever?” Fili asked his brother, stealing food off the younger Prince’s plate.

Kili grinned, but the smile softened as he turned to Bilbo, who had turned to Kili to hear the younger Prince’s answer. Kili took Bilbo’s hand and lifted it up so Bofur and Fili could see, “No, actually. Bilbo doesn’t seem like the type to like being in the spotlight, and I don’t want him to feel uncomfortable,” he said, and brushed his lips over Bilbo’s knuckles.

Bilbo blushed deeply and turned away from the entire party, clearing his throat a bit as Fili made a proud face at his brother.

“See?” Kili asked, giving a pointed stare at Bofur and grinning good-naturedly.

“This isn’t over, Princeling,” Bofur groaned, crossing his arms and pouting slightly.

“Oh, Bofur… you’ve got to admit that’s the cutest thing ever,” Fili cooed, still making proud-eyes at his little brother. “I have never been so proud of my little brother in my life.”

“Oi, shut up,” Kili groused, throwing a roll at him.

“So where did you go?” Fili asked.

“What?” Kili asked, confused.

“When you went horseback riding, Kili. Do keep up,” said Bofur, having a freaky mind-meld moment with his fiancé.

“Oh, right,” Kili replied, sticking his tongue out at his oldest friend. “We went down near Rivendell… actually, we got really close to it.”

“And how’d you like it, Bilbo?” Fili asked turning his gaze to the country boy.

“I couldn’t stop thinking of you as Dwarves following an Elf princess into battle with a Wood-Elf just to save your Dwarven cousin,” Bilbo replied.

“Oi, cheek-alert!” Bofur cried, “Though I do seem to remember that. Why did Arwen cast me, you, Kili, and Ori as Dwarves in her army against Legolas’s Wood-Elf and Gimli’s captured Dwarf?” he asked of his fiancé.

“She’s a tall beauty,” replied Kili. “She and Legolas are older, so they went through puberty first. Elves are apparently taller than Dwarves. And you _know_ how tall girls get when they hit their pre-teen years…”

“No, I don’t,” Bofur replied, “I’m marrying a man. You were the one with crushes on both girls AND boys… Did Arwen really start growing earlier than we did?”

“Obviously you weren’t paying attention to her height,” Kili replied, chuckling, “She’s going to come home and strangle you in your sleep.”

“That copse of trees was actually a very romantic spot, now that I come to think of it,” said Fili, bringing the subject back. To Bofur he said, “We should go down there one of these days.”

“Aye, and one-up your brother and his lad here,” said Bofur, smirking slightly. “There is that certain move you like so much—“ Fili had elbowed him in the gut at this point, and both Bilbo and Kili were laughing with much mirth—Bilbo from embarrassment for Fili’s sake, and Kili because he was allowed to laugh at his brother’s embarrassment.

“So, did you get up to anything down at Rivendell?” Fili asked, putting his chin in his hands and his elbows on the table, something Bilbo might have called ‘gossip-mode.’

“A Prince does not kiss and tell,” Kili replied, crossing his arms over his chest indignantly.

“So something did happen,” Bofur said. “Bilbo, is this cheeky lad lying to us?”

Bilbo smirked slightly in Bofur’s direction, his cheek from the night before coming back to him, “Oh, nothing too naughty happened, but we might have lost control just a little bit,” he replied.

It was Kili’s turn to flush, but he soon caught himself and grinned over at Bofur and Fili just in time to see their shocked faces. But then Bilbo shared a look with the younger prince, and they both busted out laughing.

“Nothing happened, Fili,” Kili replied hotly. “And even if it did, I wouldn’t tell you.”

Bilbo sobered a bit, though he tried to smile through it. There was a lot Kili wouldn’t tell his brother: a lot of terrible things that happened. Bilbo took back Kili’s hand, this time under the table, and squeezed it, only smiling when Kili looked at him, confused. There was a rift between the brothers, and it was all Azog’s fault. But Bilbo could set things right.

And he would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jeez, this fluff is going to rot my teeth at some point. Oh well.


	6. Kili's Allies

Two days later, Bilbo saw Kili’s room for the first time since stepping foot in the palace.

It was for a very innocent reason, actually. Kili wanted to hang out with his friends in an area they recognized, and Kili’s bedroom was the place they felt most comfortable in, at least in the palace.

Fili and Bofur were out that night, having their date night, so Kili and Bilbo were on their own for the first few minutes. Gimli and Ori would be arriving sometime around five, and staying until just after eight. Their families wanted them home that evening, Gimli had explained over the phone the night before. He made no mention as to why, but Kili didn’t seem to worry so much.

Kili’s room was a mess. When Bilbo knocked on his door and Kili had realized that his bedroom was such a mess, he had apologized for the state of it.

“Your study is quite organized, Kili,” Bilbo admonished playfully.

“I do everything in here,” Kili said, throwing a few dirty shirts in the laundry bin. “Except what I do in the bathroom.”

Bilbo smiled, shaking his head, “I really didn’t need that image in my head.”

“I think you really did,” Kili replied, grinning. “Anyway, the lads should be here in about ten minutes, and Gimli will need about… seven-ish minutes to rig the computer.”

“What are we doing for dinner?” Bilbo asked, and Kili looked at him, his eyebrows raised. “What? Meals are important to an old country boy like me.”

“We’ll call up a maid and get the kitchens to make us pizza,” Kili replied, taking out his phone to do so, “That is an option, you know.”

Bilbo put his hands up defensively, “I never had real friends to call out for pizza with, or a chef that was with me after seven in the evening, so you’ll excuse me.”

Kili laughed, “Oh, look at us both. Broken in two very different ways…”

And that just made Bilbo sad.

***

Gimli and Ori arrived together, each with a backpack filled with computer-y things. “I’ll allow thirty minutes with both Legolas and Arwen in the same chatroom, but then I’m talking to Leggy on my own,” Gimli groused.

Bilbo and Kili exchanged glances with Ori, who shook his head in warning, and then went back to the conversation he was having on his phone.

“I’ll be done in a minute,” he said to them as he went to the bed and sat down.

Gimli was off to Kili’s desktop computer, turning it on and getting ready to rig it, and Bilbo wandered over to Ori while Kili and Gimli were chatting about school and other things.

“Hello,” Bilbo said.

Ori looked up at him from his phone, “Hello to you too, Master Baggins.”

“I uh… hear you take a lot of pictures of this lot,” Bilbo continued, looking down at the other lad’s rucksack. There was indeed a really nice looking camera in it.

Ori sighed at whatever he had been looking at, exhausted, and looked over at Bilbo again, “I’m sorry, Master Baggins, I don’t mean to be rude but…” he raised his phone, “I would love to talk to you, but maybe a little later. It’s just that Arwen is having issues with her computer and I’m trying to walk her through it.”

Ori’s politeness struck Bilbo, and he nodded, bowing his head and wandering over to Gimli and Kili, who were talking in low whispers until Bilbo approached them and sat down.

“Why are we using your desktop computer, Kili?” Gimli asked, just as Skype announced it was loaded.

“Because last time we used my laptop we killed the power in this wing of the palace and Uncle Thorin was angry,” Kili replied. “The desktop has a bit more power.”

“But that was because we were playing WoW with Legolas, his new friend Tauriel, Aragorn, and his Dunedain boys,” Gimli replied, then, to Bilbo, added, “We kicked a lot of monster ass with them. 10 out of 10 stars, would do again.”

Bilbo laughed, but then turned on Kili, “You had the laptop plugged in?”

“Only way Gimli would work with it,” Kili answered.

Ori sat down on the bed, finally done with his phone conversation, “Are you done yet?”

“I’m not so used to a desktop computer,” Gimli said. He hit the monitor, “Come on, you great bloody behemoth!”

“Hold your horses, lover boy,” Kili replied, slapping his younger friend’s back. “Legolas is probably pining away too, waiting for us to bring you back to him.”

Bilbo couldn’t help but smile, “They’re that bad, hm?”

“I wish you two would do something. Legolas has got too much pride in him, and you, Gimli, shouldn’t be so afraid of Leggy’s rejection, because it will be _nonexistant_ …” Kili admonished.

Gimli flicked Kili behind the ear, but Ori, now baby-sitting the computer, was gesturing for them to come over, “Legolas and Arwen are in. Let’s start our thirty minutes.”

On the screen three faces appeared: two were brunettes, though the woman’s hair was considerably darker; the other one’s hair was almost white it was so blonde.

“Legolas!” Kili said, waving to the blonde. “And Arwen… with His Majesty Aragorn, I presume… We have only heard your voice over the comms, sadly.”

“His Highness, actually,” the man replied gruffly.

“Oi, me too!” Kili crowed, grinning.

“And who’s your man, then?” Arwen asked, crossing her arms over her chest, a pretty smile gracing her features.

“Bilbo Baggins,” Bilbo said, just as Kili put his arm around him and pulled him into the webcam’s range. “Lovely to meet you all.”

“Lovely to meet you,” said Legolas, bowing his head. “We’re very glad our Kili’s found someone.”

“And how are sll you guys doing without us?” Arwen asked. “Have you crashed and burned? I know you guys are terrible without adult supervision…”

“Oi, we’re going fine,” Gimli said, rolling his eyes, “ _Mother_.”

“Well, you’ve certainly lived through the semester without us,” Arwen replied, “I’ll be home in two weeks, though, so you better have shaped up by then.”

“And I will be there in the same amount of time,” said Legolas. “You be good in the meantime…” Here he seemed to look straight at Gimli, and the other boy nearly flushed.

Kili looked at Bilbo to gauge his reaction, and then looked back at the computer screen, “Bilbo might not be here when you guys get back…” he said, feigning gravity.

Bilbo froze a bit. Kili was right: Bilbo only had three more days until his final decision… and yet he seemed to know what his answer would be.

“Aw,” Arwen said, crooking her head to the side, “I hope that’s not true.”

“He’s on a trial run,” said Kili, “He makes his decision in about three days.”

“Do say yes, Bilbo,” said Arwen, a pleading tone in her voice.

Legolas cleared his throat before saying, “He has to make the choice for himself, Arwen.”

***

The small group used up the rest of Gimli’s allotted thirty minutes catching up and teasing one another, telling stories about Kili’s childhood up until the point in Kili’s life when he shut down and became the quiet one in the group.

“He’s actually opened up a bit since you’ve been around,” said Ori, giving Bilbo a smile.

Bilbo flushed then, but the group conversation came to a close, and Gimli was opening his own laptop to talk to Legolas separately. Arwen stayed on the line and chatted with Ori about his LARPing sessions, and how the designs for his role-playing game were going.

“His father has been grooming him for the Secretary of State position, but since his older half-brothers already have Parliament positions, I think he’ll be free to sketch his own worlds freely after university,” Kili said to Bilbo before wandering over to Gimli and Legolas’s conversation.

Dinner was soon served, and the group took a break from their conversations long enough to eat it, but soon after Arwen was talking with Kili and Bilbo, and Ori was talking with Gimli and Legolas.

Then Kili excused himself to the bathroom, and Bilbo took his chance to corner Ori. Ori was sitting at the desktop, waiting for Arwen to come back from saying goodbye to Aragorn, who had to leave to study for exams.

“I hear you’re the one to go to for pictures,” Bilbo said.

Ori looked up from his camera, which he had serendipitously picked up before Bilbo had approached him. “Yeah… no one else had the sense or the parents who would document our lives. So I asked for a camera when I was about eight, and ten years later, here I am, still taking the pictures at parties and things…”

Bilbo smiled, “Can I see a couple pictures? Kili talks so fondly of you guys that I kind of want to have the actual pictures in the back of my head.”

“Of course,” Ori said sweetly, picking up his laptop, “I’ve also got some clips from Legolas’s old films in here… he told me to delete them, but we’re all so precious in them I hadn’t the heart.”

Ori was really one of the sweetest boys Bilbo had ever met, and he smiled despite himself to know that Kili had Ori around in his childhood. Ori would have cared for Kili, had the youngest Prince told him his dark secret. _I don’t think he did,_ was Bilbo’s sneaking suspicion.

Ori opened some files on his laptop and flipped through them, showing pictures of the entire group’s happy faces. Arwen was a darling teenaged girl, and she and Legolas seemed to be the proud parents of their other, younger, friends. The pictures all showed the group in various costumes, from modern day dress to fantasy garb. Arwen and Legolas even wore elf ears and Fili, Bofur, Gimli, Kili and Ori all wore braids in their hair, and beards on their usually smooth chins.

Then came the pictures of Kili’s thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, etc. years. Bilbo saw only smooth skin, but tight smiles, like Kili believed he had no reason to smile, to laugh.

“It looks like you did some work on some of these,” Bilbo said, pointing to a picture where Kili was sitting with a book, looking over it like he would murder Ori (or whoever was holding the camera).

Ori suddenly froze, “Um… well…”

Bilbo saw that Ori was tense, that the young man might have known something. “Do you have the originals somewhere?” Bilbo asked carefully.

“They’re… really bad pictures. I was… getting used to the flash on a new camera and…”

“For five or six years, Ori?” Bilbo asked, remaining calm, like he was dealing with a small child.

Ori deflated a bit, and suddenly a new voice said, “I thought something was going on…”

Bilbo and Ori looked up and saw that Arwen was in the Skype screen again, her chin in her hands (and her elbows most likely resting on the table). “What?” Ori asked flustered. “Nothing was going on.”

Arwen shook her head, clucking her tongue. Her mouth was still in a tight frown, and soon her eyes were far away. “Kili said he kept walking into trees and cabinets. He had bruises on his knees, on his ankles, and on his neck most days,” here Bilbo shuddered, thinking about what that might have entailed the nights before, “I went looking for him one night. One of my old boyfriends had just broken up with me, and Fili and Bofur were on some trip or retreat in the Misty Mountains. So I went looking for Kili, knowing that he would be the one to talk to. Legolas and Gimli were rubbish at that sort of thing, and Ori was… I’m not sure where you were, darling,” Ori shrugged, and Arwen continued her explanation, “I caught them. Kili and… and some man. I wasn’t sure who it was, just that he was considerably older than Kili.”

Bilbo smelled a lie, even if Arwen was far beyond the Misty Mountains. “You two knew. About Kili and his… abuse. Arwen, you know who it was, and Ori… you knew it happened. From the pictures.”

“Was he?” Ori asked, concern etched deeply into his features.

Bilbo only nodded. Ori looked to Arwen, who was crying. “Oh, Arwen… there was nothing you could do. An adult’s word against a child’s?”

“Kili was fourteen then. I was only seventeen, and I knew my word against a man who was about… thirty? It was fruitless for me to even try!” sobbed Arwen. “My poor, sweet Prince.”

“I didn’t know it was abuse,” Ori said softly, looking up with his sweet eyes at Bilbo. “I knew it couldn’t be trees and cabinets, though, like he said. I kept the original pictures thinking maybe… maybe if I could investigate…”

Bilbo smiled, “Well… I have a witness and pictures now… and a will to help Kili in anyway possible.”

Arwen blinked, “Then…”

… Numbers were exchanged, and a new resolve drifted out between the three.

***

“Azog,” Arwen said. “I saw Prime Minister Azog. He didn’t see me, and nor did Kili, but they were… in flagrante, and Kili seemed to… to want to resist. But he couldn’t, or… or wouldn’t. I don’t know; I left as soon as I possibly could.”

“I would have as well,” Bilbo replied, looking at a few of the pictures Ori had sent him.

It was late at night, and the others had all gone home. Arwen had called as soon as she was able to, and Ori had sent the original pictures to Bilbo’s personal computer. “He looks ghastly,” said Bilbo.

The pictures Ori had sent were from Kili’s twelfth year to his eighteenth, where he had been covered in bruises, but he wore turtlenecks and trousers everyday, even in the summers. When he had gotten into costume for some of Legolas’s random projects, and Arwen’s random imagination games (even at fifteen to eighteen she was an imaginative girl), they had had to pat him down with make-up (for the films) or pretend he was a particularly aggressive Dwarf (for the imagination games). Ori had explained all of this in the email attached to the pictures.

“He looked ghastlier in real life,” Arwen whispered. “You’ll help him?”

“I’ll get these pictures to Gandalf. He’ll trust me. And you’ll give him your story, and, most importantly, we can hopefully get Kili to tell his story as well… He’ll be key.”

Arwen breathed out. “You’re so good for him, Mister Baggins,” she said. Bilbo found himself flushing, and the girl continued; “I think it would be good for you both if you said yes to becoming his betrothed…”

Bilbo sucked in a shaky breath before he replied, “Yes well… I’m sure there’s a club for people like you who think that.”

***

It was only past midnight, before Bilbo had a chance to drift into slumber, that he panicked. Panicked about having just two days to make a decision about Kili, and panicked because now he had evidence to put Azog, _mean-looking, violent_ Azog, into jail forever… He was terrified of what lay ahead.


	7. Bilbo Reveals

Morning dawned bright, though only a little of it’s light in came in through Bilbo’s gossamer curtains. The country-born male blinked, trying to bring his world back into focus, when suddenly there was a flurry of motion and Kili was suddenly on top of him, straddling his hips. Kili’s brown eyes seemed panicked, and Bilbo wondered what on earth had him so spooked.

_Is someone hurt or dying?_ the curly-haired man asked himself sleepily.

“Today’s the day,” Kili hissed, his back and shoulders tense.

Bilbo blinked, still confused.

“Your decision!” Kili near-shouted. “It’s today!”

Bilbo was suddenly awake, and suddenly sitting up, nearly bumping noses with the young man on top of him.

Three days had passed since Bilbo had found allies in Ori and Arwen, and it was now time to choose whether he would stay, or use this last day to tell Gandalf about Azog and then run for Bag End and never look back.

But then he saw Kili’s worried face, and his eyes softened. “Are you really that worried that I’ll say no?” he asked.

Kili stared at Bilbo for a long moment before pushing himself forward and touching Bilbo’s lips with his own. Bilbo’s eyes became very wide, and as Kili pulled away, they only stared at each other. “Did that help?” the Prince asked breathily.

Bilbo blinked to wet his eyes again and put his fist over his mouth to cough, “Did you think it would?” he asked.

Kili sat back on his feet and looked like he was about to cry. “I was hoping it would…”

Bilbo made a pained noise at the back of his throat before moving closer to Kili on the bed (with his lower abdomen skillfully still under the covers). He moved his hand carefully to Kili’s cheek and pulled their faces together.

“May I?” he asked.

Kili nodded, and Bilbo was soon kissing the younger man, as softly as he could. Kili wrapped his arms around Bilbo’s waist and pulled them closer, deepening the kiss. When they parted, Kili looked at Bilbo, disallowing hope to creep into his features.

Bilbo scoffed.

“Can I kiss you again, my Prince?” he asked.

Kili nodded, and Bilbo kissed him again, this time throwing his arms around Kili’s shoulders. When he pulled away, Kili was confused, and worry lines were still etched into his face.

“I think that means yes, Your Highness,” Bilbo said, a small smile on his face.

Kili’s eyes widened, but so did his mouth: into a smile. He bowled Bilbo over so that the smaller man was lying down on his back on the mattress, with Kili properly on top of him. Bilbo couldn’t help but laugh as Kili asked to kiss him again, the younger man’s hands scrambling over his chest. Bilbo pushed him away, laughing. “No… no I’m ticklish there!” he cried, and Kili made a sort of barking sound that Bilbo translated into a laugh. Bilbo softened his gaze at the younger man and said, “But I would love it if you kissed me again… and again and again and again.”

Kili complied, kissing him twice on the lips, once on the nose, and again on the other man’s brow. Kili then leaned forward into Bilbo neck and he breathed in softly, saying, “I’m really glad that you said yes.”

Bilbo smiled, running his fingers through the hairs at the back of Kili’s head, “I am too.”

***

After Bilbo got dressed, Kili was waiting outside his rooms, and he took the smaller man’s hand in his and pulled him down the hall to Gandalf’s offices. “Uncle should be in there too.”

Bilbo panicked a bit at this. He needed to tell Gandalf, and probably Thorin, soon about Azog’s past relations with Kili. _But this is a happy occasion,_ Bilbo thought, breathing rather deeply to calm himself down.

“Don’t be nervous,” Kili said, “Gandalf loves you, and I’m sure Thorin and the rest of the nation will come to love you too.”

“As long as _you_ love me, Kili,” said Bilbo, “I don’t care what the others think.”

Kili shook his head, the corners of his mouth twitching in fondness, “You always know exactly what to say.”

Bilbo bowed his head humbly, “Only what a modest stint in the Language and Literature department of the University of Bree taught me.”

Kili squeezed his hand lightly as he pushed open the door to Gandalf’s office study. Thorin was indeed there with Gandalf, looking over legal documents while Gandalf lounged in an armchair. He looked up at the couple in the doorway and smiled, “You said yes.”

Bilbo nodded, “I did,” he replied, looking over to Thorin, who had only glanced up from the document he was working on. “Don’t I have papers to sign?”

“No,” Gandalf replied, leaning back into the chair and closing his eyes, “You signed papers when you came up here. That was just a formality. Papers now would be as well. I don’t want this to be binding.”

“That will be the wedding itself,” said Thorin gruffly. “Once I make the announcement this afternoon, that will make your wedding an obligation to the nation. No one easily breaks that without some scrutiny. That’s enough of a formality to keep you.”

He shot Bilbo a reprimanding look, and Bilbo couldn’t help but stare defensively back. “Your Majesty… if I have in any way offended you, I truly apologize. I don’t know if you think I am only here for the fortune your nephew will possess, or because of my other apparent greediness, or the fact that I never wanted this in the first place, but I can tell you, I now want to be a part of your family because I truly care about Kili. And if you don’t see that, I probably won’t go to any lengths to show you, and I think that is perfectly reasonable, because Kili should be the only one who knows just how much I care about him…”

He turned to Kili, at his new fiancé’s shocked face, and nuzzled him a little bit, wrapping his arms around his waist protectively. He turned back to Thorin, who had coughed and turned back to his paperwork, which had been slightly forgotten. “All right then,” the King replied, “I’ll announce your engagement this afternoon. I would like you two to be there and dressed nicely for the news crews.”

“Yes sir,” Kili said, and the new couple left the office.

***

About an hour later, Bilbo had pried himself from Kili arms, telling the younger man he needed to go to the bathroom.

Instead, he went back to Gandalf’s office and stood in front of the door with some trepidation. _For Kili_ , he thought, and knocked on the fine mahogany doors. There was a gruff voice telling him to come in. Opening the large doors with some amount of force, Bilbo entered the room, his heart pounding loudly against his rib cage.

Thorin was still in the room, now having to use eyeglasses for the tiny print on the paper. Gandalf was stooping over him, pointing out different clauses and fine prints as Thorin signed away.

“What is it, Master Baggins?” Gandalf asked, gazing at Bilbo over half-moon glasses.

“I have… something to discuss with you… and his Majesty. It concerns Kili,” said Bilbo as bravely as he possibly could.

Gandalf stood up to his full height, which was frightening to Bilbo, who was as vertically challenged as they came.

Bilbo breathed in slowly and said, “He’s been abused in his past.”

Thorin and Gandalf exchanged looks, and Thorin was suddenly towering over Bilbo. Bilbo stood his ground and glanced up at him. “Prime Minister Azog has a proclivity to teenaged boys, apparently, and started with Kili when he was only twelve. He stopped as soon as Kili was eighteen. All the bruises and scars… might have been from Azog.”

“How do you know this, Mister Baggins?” Thorin growled, eyes narrowing to slits.

“Kili told me. Eventually. And Arwen walked in on them when Kili was fifteen. And Ori has pictures of the bruises and cuts deep in his hardrive.”

“We’ll need all of that evidence,” Gandalf said, pulling out his cell phone, “Arwen’s testimony, Kili’s testimony, and Ori’s pictures.”

While Gandalf made the calls to Ori and Arwen, Thorin stared Bilbo down, almost to the point where Bilbo had to make himself leave. Before Bilbo got to that point, Thorin asked, “Do Fili and Bofur know?”

“No. But I think they will if Azog is… is put on trial.”

“Gandalf is good,” Thorin said, mostly to himself, “And you seem to have sufficient evidence…”

Bilbo nodded, “Arwen walked in on them and actually saw Azog. Kili… I’m not sure if we can get him to testify but… I hope he will,” Bilbo said breathily.

Thorin studied him for a moment. “You really do care for my nephew.”

Bilbo looked up at him with a slight glare on his face, “Of course I do…”

“I do not mean to be rude,” Thorin amended carefully, “but Gandalf said how attached you were to Bag End…”

“I think I care more for your nephew than I do for a few thousand acres of land,” Bilbo near-spat.

Thorin would have retorted, but Gandalf had put his phone down. “Arwen should be online in twenty minutes, and Ori is on his way here with his hardrive. I only need Kili’s statement in writing.”

“Are you going to arrest the Prime Minister?” asked Bilbo, finally moving past Thorin and into the room. Thorin slowly retreated back behind the desk again, though he was much tenser as he slowly seated himself.

Gandalf nodded toward the blond, “I’ve had our police go to his home in town. He will be taken to the Iron Hills Penitentiary, where I will make sure he doesn’t get bail. Then we will work diligently on our side of the trial proceedings.”

Bilbo breathed out a great sigh of relief, almost crying in his joy. Kili would be free… _Kili_ … “Should I… talk to Kili then?” he asked.

“He would be suspicious if we suddenly knew, and you _are_ his fiancé now,” Gandalf replied slowly.

Bilbo nodded, his chest tightening again. Would Kili be understanding of all Bilbo had done for him? His breath was shaky as he sucked in air, but soon he left Gandalf’s office in search of the younger Prince.

***

Kili was hanging out with Fili. Bofur had some business to attend to with his brother, and so Fili and Kili were in the big movie theater room, talking through a recent Marvel film, laughing together over the antics of the characters in the movie. Bilbo watched the brothers, seeing how open Kili seemed to be with his brother. _Finally._ Bilbo thought as he he smiled.

… But he had to break things up for a minute.

“Bilbo! Join us!” Kili called, noticing Bilbo lurking behind him and his brother.

“I can’t,” said Bilbo. “I… Can I talk to you out in the hall, Kili?”

“Careful, he might be going back on his decision,” Fili hissed, clearly teasing them both.

Kili stuck his tongue out at his older brother, who laughed, and then Kili hopped out of his row and grabbed Bilbo’s hands before dragging them both out into the hallway. He paused, “Fili better not be right…”

“He’s… he’s not. I _promise_ he’s not…” Bilbo stuttered out. He then tried some breathing exercises, pulling the Prince into the nearest room. Kili watched him with a curious and worried stare.

Bilbo avoided eye contact as he blurted, “ItoldyouruncleandGandalfaboutAzog!”

It took Kili a moment to understand Bilbo’s fast speaking, but soon he paled in understanding. “Wh-Why?”

Bilbo saw that Kili was angry, or disappointed, or just scared, and stepped closer to the other male, but Kili was pushing past him and sitting in one of the armchairs in the room instead.

“Because I care,” Bilbo said, turning to Kili without approaching him.

Kili looked up into Bilbo’s face, his eyes wide and scared.

Bilbo went to his knees in front of the Prince; their eyes were still locked on each other faces. “This will be good, Kili. I promise. Gandalf will put Azog on trial, and he’s very good at punishing the people who deserve it. With the right evidence, Gandalf will be able to put Azog in prison for the rest of his natural life. He’ll be shipped off to a high security prison somewhere far away, and you will be free…”

“He won’t get any good evidence,” Kili said tightly, tears at the corner of his eyes where smile lines had been only moments before.

“He will,” Bilbo replied passionately.

“Only my testimony. My word against Azog’s, and he’s clever!”

“Not clever enough for a second witness and the original photos Ori took of you during those years,” Bilbo said.

Kili stared at him, “Second… witness? And Ori kept… kept the original pictures?”

“Arwen may have walked in on you two in flagrante when you were about… fourteen?” Bilbo responded, “And Ori worried about you. He sort of guessed you were lying to him about the precise origins of your bruises and cuts…”

Kili flushed, “And now my uncle and Gandalf know too…” he said after a long pause.

“It’s no good keeping it all to yourself. Your brother should have known too,” Bilbo pointed out.

Kili flinched at these words, “He would have.”

“Don’t pin this one Fili,” Bilbo admonished. He took Kili’s hands again, “Gandalf wants your testimony.”

“Of course he does,” Kili snapped.

Bilbo didn’t flinch, though. Instead, he studied Kili’s hands, turning them over and ghosting his fingers over the lines in the Prince’s palm. “He may intimidate you… Azog, I mean. But if we keep faith in Gandalf, and in your friends, then think of the freedom you will have. It won’t change the past, I know, and you’ll have those memories embedded in your brain however deeply you may repress them… but your future is what matters. Your future… with me,” Bilbo flushed deeply before continuing, “A-And with you brother and Bofur. And your uncle. And your friends. If we do something about Azog now, you will be free from the fear of the humiliation he subjected you to for those six years. The people of Erebor will rally behind you; you have nothing to fear from them. But he will be gone. Locked away physically, and one day, mentally.”

Bilbo looked up at Kili and saw that he crying softly, his body hiccupping as he tried to keep the tears at bay. The prince finally leaned into Bilbo’s shoulder, dampening the older man’s shirt. Bilbo didn’t care. He lifted himself into the Prince’s lap, pulling him close and running his stubby fingers through Kili’s dark hair. He said nothing more until Kili seemed done.

“I’ll go,” Kili said, sniffling.

Bilbo scrambled off of Kili’s lap, and Kili stood up, only to lean down and put his forhehead to Bilbo’s. “You’re so good to me,” he said. “Can I kiss you, for luck?”

“Of course,” Bilbo replied, and they embraced fully, Kili kissing him long and slow.

***

Bilbo was down in the kitchens when Fili found him.

“Uncle’s making the announcement about your, um, engagement… thingy,” he said, clearly distracted.

Bilbo had a feeling and went with it, “You heard.”

“How could I not?” Fili asked.

Bilbo nodded, “It’s not your fault. It’s not Kili’s, either. It’s Azog’s.”

Fili’s jaw tightened, “I just… wish he would have told me.”

“Well, I wish it had never happened, but it did. So now we pick up the pieces,” Bilbo said, pushing past Fili up the stairs. “Now, buck up so you can show me where I’m going. I’m still new at this whole… announcement thing.”

Fili shook himself out of his misery and pushed pass the littler man, sticking a smile onto his face as he led Bilbo through the castle to the south side. There was a large balcony where a podium was set up, and all the news crews seemed to be on one side of the glass already, setting up their equipment. Off to one side of this hall was a room where Thorin was most likely getting ready, because it was the other room that Fili shoved Bilbo into.

Right into the arms of Kili, who was already dressed smartly in a suit jacket and button-down shirt instead of his usual t-shirt and jeans. Fili waved his fingers as he ran off again, Bilbo glaring daggers at his retreating back.

Bilbo was already dressed in a nice button-down and jumper, and the wardrobe lady said as much, clucking over ‘the youngest Prince’s fiancé’s impeccable grooming.’ Kili stuck his tongue out at Bilbo childishly, but Bilbo kissed him, chasing the younger man’s tongue back into his mouth. “Sorry,” he said when they parted.

“Don’t be,” said Kili, grinning. “I always want kisses from you…”

Bilbo kissed him again, for luck.

***

All too soon they were outside on the balcony under the hot sun and lights, and cameras were flashing and people were talking.

“Ladies and gentlemen of Erebor and the world,” Thorin boomed through the microphone on the podium. The crowds and the reporters fell silent. Thorin shuffled his prop index cards, and Bilbo thought he saw a vein popping out of the large man’s neck: the King was still angry about Azog, perhaps. The King breathed in slowly, calming himself down before launching into a story about the younger prince being a bit of a loner but finally finding it in himself to choose a life-partner. He ended his speech with, “It is with great pleasure that I announce my youngest heir’s betrothal to Mister Bilbo Baggins of Bag End!”

There was a great roar of applause, and once again the news crews nearly killed themselves trying to get behind the wall to ask questions, but Kili only smirked in Bilbo’s direction before Bard could grab all of them and drag them inside. Then, to one-up his brother, or shut the shouting reporters up, he kissed Bilbo, right in front of the cameras. When they parted, they threw adoring looks at their public, and then walked briskly but gracefully back inside.

And then burst out into peals of laughter once they were deep within the safety of the palace walls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come visit me on Tumblr: s-w-e-e-t--puck (dot tumblr dot com).


	8. Bilbo's Home

A week later, Bilbo was exhausted and it showed.

Every news program wanted to have Kili and Bilbo interviewed, and every noble in the House of Lords wanted to meet the fiancé of the youngest Prince, so for a week there were parties every evening and interviews all day. He met Galadriel of Lorien, Thranduil of Greenwood, Elrond and his husband, both from Imladris. He met Bard of Laketown and Dale, Denethor of Gondor, Theoden of Rohan. He had interviews on all the major cable networks, plus many from small networks renting out studios along the Running River in South Dale (formally known as Laketown). Suffice to say Bilbo, at least, was exhausted.

But now the week was finally over, and Bilbo was hardly standing as he walked in to Thorin’s office. Kili was already there, and he stood up to meet the curly-haired male. “Oh, dear,” he said, pulling Bilbo close and guiding him to a chair.

“Did it have to be over one week?” Gandalf asked from another armchair, also exhausted. “Really?”

“Uncle made the schedule,” Kili replied, and then to Thorin said, “I should have reminded you that Bilbo is particular about his social schedule. He needs at least one or two nights of rest between parties!”

Thorin blinked, “Well, as your husband he’s going to have to make some sacrifices for you.”

“Uncle!” Kili cried, “Not everyone can handle that many parties and interviews in one week! You should at least have consulted me about the time tables!”

Bilbo suddenly stood up, and though he was indeed exhausted, he managed to step between the two, holding up his arms. “No, no. No fighting about me. I’ll live.”

“You should have said something to me during one of our outings, _at_ least,” Kili fussed over Bilbo, settling him back in his chair. He shot a glare at Thorin, who ignored his youngest heir as he typed something up on his laptop.

Gandalf suddenly stood up and swept over to Thorin, slamming Thorin’s laptop closed. “They need a break,” he said, “Hmm… Let me amend that: they _deserve_ a break.”

He turned to the two, and said to them, before Thorin could protest, “We can get you a ticket to anywhere you would like, any country in the world, or any city here in Erebor.”

“Any?” Bilbo asked, perking up a bit.

“We have a few weeks before we need to really get ready for the trial, which is next up on our list of… social… gatherings,” Gandalf said, “And Bilbo needs some time to recuperate from this last week. Also, you two should have a vacation alone, away from the palace and these ruffians, as you two have hardly had a moment alone and to yourselves,” he looked to Thorin, who was now pensive. “And I know Kili won’t worry about the trial at least for a little while especially if he’s farther away from the palace.”

Thorin grimaced, thinking hard before he nodded and replied, “One week. We can stretch it to a week an a half, especially if you are within the borders of Erebor.”

“Blatant manipulation, but it does make sense,” Gandalf said, winking slightly at the Prince and his almost comatose fiancé.

Kili and Bilbo looked at each other, eyes searching one another’s. “Where would we go?” Bilbo asked. “A week and a half sounds much more relaxing that just a week. Moria? Mirkwood?”

“We’d have to stay with Thranduil and Legolas if we went there,” Kili pointed out.

“We shouldn’t be hermits, Kili,” Bilbo said. “I’m sure if we went anywhere we would have some protection with us, at least.”

“Right…” Kili said. “But I just want to be with you and not have to be around people that I know… Oh!”

“What?” Bilbo asked.

“Bag End!”

Bilbo’s eyes widened, but soon his mouth curved into a smile. “I’d have to go as a visitor, but that might be nice.”

“I want to see where you grew up, and meet all the people you’ve mentioned to me,” Kili said.

“I need to check on Bell and her new baby… and the others with children. Little Merry should be fourteen months now, and Frodo’s got his third birthday on my birthday in September…” Bilbo mused, a small smile on his face.

“We’ll be going to Bag End,” Kili said, turning to his uncle and Gandalf.

Gandalf made a note of it on his phone, and nodded, “I will get you train tickets for tomorrow. You’ll leave in the evening, so make sure your relatives know, Bilbo.”

“Aye,” Bilbo yawned, “I’ll actually get on that right away,” he said, standing up to leave. He remembered his manners almost too late, but bowed to Thorin, “Thank you,” he said, but then was gone.

***

“We’ll only be staying a week, Primula, and as guests,” Bilbo explained over the phone later.

She twittered, “The children will be ecstatic to see you. You should see them all, Bilbo, Frodo has taken such a liking to Samwise, oh, and Eggy is pregnant and it’s a boy according to the doctors at Bree! Merry’s so delighted to have a younger boy around the house.”

Bilbo couldn’t help but smile, but he only made an affirmation noise before asking, “So it’s all right if we come down for the next week and a half?”

“Darling, when have you ever been barred from the Shire?”

“Even with the youngest Prince of Erebor and maybe four or five bodyguards?” Bilbo asked.

“Love,” Primula near-reprimanded, “The Shire has been your home for 23 years. No matter what happens, it will always embrace you.”

“Thanks,” Bilbo said. “We’ll be seeing you tomorrow in the late evening.”

“Oh, it’ll be like magic for Frodo in the morning. He does love surprises,” Primula said.

“Well, goodbye, Prim.”

“Be seeing you, Bo.”

***

Nothing of note really happened the day of Kili and Bilbo’s departure. Before dinner the youngest Prince and his fiancé packed individually, and after dinner they were taken to the Dale train station with about three men-at-arms trailing behind them. “I was suspecting there would be more,” said Bilbo.

“Fili and Uncle are more important than a younger Prince at the moment,” said Kili almost bitterly. “Actually, I don’t mind.”

“It sounds like you don’t actually mind,” Bilbo teased.

Kili scoffed and rolled his eyes at him.

Primula and her friend Bell Gamgee picked up Kili, Bilbo, and the three bodyguards from the station after the long train ride.

After some pleasantries, Bilbo gestured to Kili, “Prim, Bell,” he said, nodding to each as they were called, “this is, of course, Prince Kili Oakenshield.”

“But just call me Kili, please,” the younger male added.

Bilbo’s old driver drove them to Bag End, and after the tour of the grand old house, they were both left to their own devices for the night. Bilbo read a bit before retiring to his bedroom, and Kili went straight to bed in a bedroom across from Bilbo’s.

***

The next morning there were babies.

At Bag End, the children stayed near the house, unless it was summer, when they could roam free if they wished. The women of the house would often take care of the children, but especially when there was a pregnant woman, she often cared for the rest of the children. That way both the children’s parents could work in the fields or in the house without needing to worry so much about their children.

And so the morning started with Frodo and a toddling Merry crashing through Bilbo’s room uninvited.

An hour later, Kili and Bilbo were in the kitchen, their hands around mugs of coffee waiting for the small country breakfast to be served as Eglantine Took rushed after some of the older children were chasing the younger ones up and down stairs and in and out the doors of Bag End to the outside.

“It’s hectic here, how did you survive?” Kili asked.

“They all left at the end of the day,” said Bilbo, “And I when I needed my space, my study door was always closed and everyone knew to knock when I was needed.”

“Frodo’s usually a quiet child,” said Drogo, just coming in from morning rounds outside. “It’s just with the other children…”

“Of course,” said Bilbo. “He was so polite this morning when he woke me up by accident.”

“Good,” said Drogo, moving to the morning inspection of the house and it’s daily functions.

“His first words ever were ‘thank you,’” said Primula from behind her newspaper.

Kili scoffed, “Better than me. Mine were ‘Dragon go boom.’”

“Midsummer’s eve fireworks?” Bilbo asked.

“That was the one,” responded Kili, grinning.

“You two should take a turn around the fields,” said Primula, “I brought up all our livestock from Crickhollow, and the riding horses should make the tour faster than walking. I’m sure old Hamfast will want to see you. And your cousin Paladin!”

“Hamfast is Bell’s husband, Sam’s father,” said Bilbo to Kili when the Prince flashed him a confused look. “Paladin is Eggy’s husband and my mum’s cousin who followed her down here. He and his sister settled down when mum did. Esmeralda is--”

“Merry’s mother,” interupted Primula.

Kili nodded in understanding, and then shot an excited look at Primula, “Horseback riding on a day like this one sounds lovely,” then, elbowing Bilbo, he asked his fiancé, “Aren’t you glad I taught you how to ride?”

Primula set down the newspaper and raised her eyebrow, “He taught you how to ride, eh?”

“Oh, shut up, Prim,” Bilbo muttered and she and Kili burst out laughing.

As soon as Kili and Bilbo were dressed Primula led them out of the house to an out building that had once been a large storage barn, but now housed not only two riding horses, but also an indoor home for the sheep that were now littering the hills outside the Shire, and cows and some very clean pigs.

More of the villagers seemed to go in and out to clean the stalls, but Primula told them she took care of the animals herself everyday, and she was training some of the older children to as well. She saddled up the two horses, and watched the former owner of Bag End and his Prince off as they started their tour around the fields.

“The harvest must be massive,” Kili commented a little later, looking around at all the various fields. There were vegetable gardens and wheat crops and beehives and orchards. Kili was stunned by the countryside and all the hard work everyone in the village seemed to do for Bag End and the Bagginses.

“We have a massive party in the town square because we deserve it after all our hard work,” said Bilbo. “Me included. I was the one who made the lists of the various things we had to do for the entire month, and that took me three months in advance to write.”

“Uncle told us everyone in the country is lazy…” Kili said, and then, realizing what he had said, clamped his mouth shut.

Bilbo waved away Kili’s comment, “His friends in the House of Lords are the lazy ones. I helped him with his landowner’s bill a couple weeks ago and he saw how much more I know and do for my lands. I hope.”

“I hope so too… I’m not sure if every country town is like this one… Moria certainly wasn’t, though many of the people worked there only when the Royal Family was there for summers and winters…”

“Moria’s about… thirty miles from here,” Bilbo pointed out, pointing northwards.

“Really?” Kili asked, maneuvering his horse away from a group of small children who were chasing each other across the outskirts of the fields between the wheat crop and the apple orchards, “We should visit. Not… not stay there, but… I want to show you the mansion and the village.”

“It might be a nice change of scene from…” Bilbo stopped his horse for another group of children, “well… nothing’s happening now. The plowing was a few weeks ago, so now we only water the crops and weed around the plants. The flowers on the orchards will leave by May Day, so I guess we can look at those while we’re here.”

“Are you afraid that I’ll get bored, Bilbo?” Kili asked, “When I am with my fiancé and we are as far away from nobles and city-folk as we can get?”

Bilbo flushed, “I would still love to see Moria.”

“Then we’ll take a day and go see it,” said Kili.

Bilbo nodded, and then turned when someone called his name. Three stout young men were coming over.

“Hamfast, Paladin, Saradoc, how have you been?” Bilbo asked smiling at them.

“Very well, thank you,” said each in turn.

“You’ve done very well for yourself too, I see,” said Paladin, looking up at Kili. “He’s shorter than on the telly.”

“Hello sir…” said the Prince shyly.

“Paladin II Took. I’m a cousin of Master Baggins’s late mother. Followed her from Aberdeen and settled down when I met Eglantine,” said the man.

“Oh…” said Kili. “And I’m not sure which of you is Hamfast…” he said to the other two.

“Here,” replied the rounder of the two. “Hamfast Gamgee.”

“And Saradoc Brandybuck.”

“At your service, your Highness,” they said in unison, both bowing.

“Please, call me Kili,” said the Prince with a smile on his face. “At your service, sirs. You have lovely children,” he said, but his eyes unconsciously settled on Paladin, who was at the end of the line of men in front of Kili’s horse.

“Eggy’s had three girls before this pregnancy,” explained Bilbo to the Prince, “And you’re sure this new one is a boy?” he asked of Paladin.

“Of course I’m sure,” said Paladin. “They’ve got better technology down in Bree-town.”

“And Sam’s birth was easy, I hope?” Bilbo asked of Hamfast.

“My lovely wife is used to birthing babies. This one was a bit harder, but Bell’s a fighter,” said Hamfast. “You saw her last night. She looks great, doesn’t she?”

“Always did,” Bilbo replied, smiling. “And Sara, how is everything?”

“Everything is just fine. Drogo and Primula are quite nice, but we old-timers miss you, Master Baggins,” replied Saradoc.

“Well… I’ll visit as much as possible in the coming years, and Moria will be ours, which is just 30 miles away…”

“Oh good,” grinned Hamfast.

The bell for the start of a new shift suddenly sounded and Saradoc and Hamfast said their goodbyes to their old master and his fiancé. Paladin stayed back to say, “Nice to see you again, Master Baggins.”

“Nice to see you again too, Paladin,” responded Bilbo.

“And nice to meet you, Prince Kili,” Paladin added.

Kili nodded, “Nice to meet you too.”

Bilbo pushed his horse back into a walk, and Kili soon followed. They rode side-by-side in silence for a moment before Kili said, “I quite like the country.”

“Oh really?” Bilbo replied, glancing over at his husband-to-be with a cheeky smile.

Kili smiled back, just as cheeky, “You’re all so friendly. You’re all a big, happy family together, despite the Bagginses being employers and everyone else being employees.”

Bilbo smiled, “I dream of other lands, and as soon as I go, I just want to come back to the Shire again and get woken up by thundering children’s feet.”

Kili laughed, “We can live here, you know… and have Moria as a place to stay in Winter, or whenever, really…”

Bilbo flushed. “We’ll see, won’t we?”

***

Bilbo stayed in the kitchen with Primula that evening when Kili went upstairs to their rooms. Bilbo decided upon having an evening pot of tea with the new lady of the house. Prim looked out the window, “I heard about the trial of Azog. Nasty business. Is his High—Kili going to be all right?” she asked.

“I hope he will be, Prim… I really do,” said Bilbo.

 “Is this good for you?” Prim asked. “This marriage to him?”

“Doesn’t everyone dream of marrying royalty?” Bilbo asked. Primula gave him a pointed stare. Bilbo frowned, “I don’t know… do you think it’s good? For me?”

“I think it’s great,” said Primula. “But that’s my opinion. What do you want? Is _this_ what you want?”

Bilbo breathed in and out slowly, looking back out the window to the vegetable gardens on the north-eastern side of the grounds. “I’ve always wanted to settle down like mum finally did. She and Dad always seemed so happy together and… I always wanted that. But I felt I could never get that because of my position, especially after Mum and Dad died…”

“So you’re happy with your decision.”

“I was super jealous when Drogo married you,” confessed Bilbo, grinning at her. He sobered up a little, as he continued, “I always thought I need someone… someone kind and compassionate who would get me out of my shell. And Kili…” Bilbo breathed his fiancé’s name, “He needs someone who will love him… like, actually love him enough to marry him. For him. Not his money or his position. Or for… whatever Azog saw in him. For him.”

“And do you love him?” Primula asked. “Enough to be a better mate than Azog?”

Bilbo was suddenly caught by surprise. “Gods, I… I sure hope I can be a better mate than Azog. I mean… that man was an evil bastard and he had no right to lay one finger on Kili. Not one,” he stated boldly, though his words faltered and his breath was short. He calmed himself before confessing, “It’s hard not to love Kili, Prim. Everyday that we’re together… I fall a little harder. Soon, I’ll warrant I’ll be head over heels.”

Primula smiled, “Aww… I’m so proud of you both.”

***

There was strange half room that connected Kili’s room and Bilbo’s room that one could only get to if they went through either’s into it. Bathrooms flanked the two bedrooms, and were also only entered through the rooms themselves. Bilbo wasn’t sure if his great-grandfather Balbo had any reason for this type of guest room but he had a feeling in the old days his sons married and had children and just lived at Bag End instead of moving away, which was what most respectable Shirelings did. Connecting the two rooms, with no door into the hall, was a secret room that acted as an extra sitting room. There were two arm chairs near the fire, and here was where Kili was sitting, flipping through some of the books found in shelves all around the room.

“You didn’t have to wait up,” Bilbo told him, having seen the light from under his bedroom’s door and checking on the secret room.

Kili looked up at him, standing. “I found a book of fairy tales and got lost in them.”

Bilbo looked at the large volume Kili had put down in the chair, and stooped to pick them up. Kili had put the pink ribbon bookmark in between the pages where they left off: “Beauty and the Beast.”

Kili flushed, “Was always my favorite story, despite the way the Beast just comes to Beauty’s bed without asking… among all the rest, I mean. Kidnapping, ransom, manipulation…”

Bilbo, in realization, looked up from the pretty illustrations into Kili’s eyes. “Kili…”

Kili looked away, toward the fire, “I always hoped… that Azog would turn out to be… be the Beast in the end: a fairytale Prince. Gods I… I was so wrong.”

Bilbo gently put the book down, and reached out to touch Kili involuntarily. Kili wrenched away from him. Bilbo crossed his arms for a moment. “Sorry.”

Kili shook his head, the rest of him still as a statue though his head hung in shame.

“Kili,” Bilbo said. He crossed over to a shelf that held a music player and switched it on. From the night before, when Bilbo had stayed up reading and listening to music, he knew that a CD of ballet favorite was still in the player. A _pas de deux_ , or two-person, often romantic, dance, began playing softly.

He turned to Kili, “Dance with me?”

Kili’s attention snapped to his new fiancé and he flushed. “A smooth way of asking to touch me.”

Bilbo nodded, “But will you let me?”

“Yes,” Kili replied after a while.

They came together, Bilbo taking Kili’s waist. Kili wrapped his arms around Bilbo shoulders and they swayed together in silence.

“Tale as old as time,” Kili said, grinning a little.

“Barely even friends,” Bilbo replied. Then, after another silence, added, “Do you know why I usually ask, and am so apologetic when I don’t?”

“Ask… what?” Kili said.

“Ask to touch you, to kiss you?” replied Bilbo.

Kili’s breath hitched in his throat, and Bilbo smiled. “I do it because Azog didn’t. And you deserve a say in anything you do with another person.”

Kili’s face fell into Bilbo’s shoulder.

“Seriously, my Prince. Don’t forget to tell me when you do not want something. And I will do the same with you,” Bilbo whispered into Kili’s ear, and felt the dark-haired man shudder through his tears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Consent is sexy.
> 
> Come hang out with me over at tumblr: s-w-e-e-t--puck . tumblr . com


	9. Paladin's Fiddle

A few days after Bilbo and Kili’s arrival to the Shire, Bilbo was pulled from the house one day into town. Kili joined him in the old-fashioned carriage Drogo had stuffed him in, and they conjectured as to where they were going and, most importantly to Bilbo, why.

They reached the town green and Bilbo automatically groaned, dropping his head onto his palm.

Kili laughed, “A surprise party?”

“I hate surprises,” said Bilbo. “The festival parties are usually planned!”

Kili put a hand at the small of Bilbo’s back and kissed him, “It’ll be alright, Bilbo. At least we know now.”

Bilbo let his head fall onto his fiancé’s chest. “All right. Let’s do this,” he looked up at Kili, “They always have good intentions here in the Shire.”

Kili smiled and jumped out first, turning back to the carriage and holding out his hand, “M’Lord.”

Bilbo laughed, taking the younger man’s hand and stepping down from the carriage gracefully.

People laughing and singing and dancing and drinking soon overran them. Bilbo talked his way through them to the food tent, where he and Kili piled their plates high and sat down at a table where Primula and Bell sat. Bell was holding Sam, whose eyes were drooping somewhat. The other children were laughing, reveling in the fact that they could stay up way past their bedtimes.

“You got here before us?” Bilbo asked.

“Duh,” said Primula, “I know you’re angry, but it was Bell’s idea to throw a party for you.”

“I forgot you hated surprises, love,” said Bell, “But as soon as I suggested it, everyone thought it was a damn fine idea and so it stuck. We would have told you but we all got so caught up in your arrival.”

“Oh, it’s all fine,” said Bilbo smiling. “Everyone is getting fed, everyone’s having a good time after a long day of work, and I realize and accept this. Everybody wins.”

Bell raised an eyebrow, “If you’re sure…”

“I’m sure,” said Bilbo. “I’m not quite as fussy as I used to be.”

“Although he’s still pretty fussy,” Kili added, earning a glare from his husband-to-be.

The women laughed. Kili stretched his arms out to hold Sam, and Bell carefully transferred him to the younger Prince. Sam looked up at Kili curiously, but smiled and burbled at him after a minute or two. Bilbo smiled at Kili when the younger man shot him an excited look.

Frodo and Merry soon ran over, Merry still toddling and holding the hand of his cousin Bluebell. More children rushed over: Brandybucks, Tooks, Gamgees, and many other children of the families in the area.

“Sammy! Sammy!” Frodo called, trying to jump up to reach the tiny baby boy.

Kili stooped down on the grassy knoll, and there was a sudden onslaught of children rushing on him. Kili laughed and took it in stride though: a big child himself most days.

“I think he’ll be a good father,” said Bell, leaning back against the picnic table and glancing over at Bilbo.

“I think you’re correct,” Bilbo said, half in a dream.

“I can hear you two,” said Kili, resurfacing. Then, to the kids he said, “Why don’t we go over that hill and play? I’ll keep an eye on Samwise here…”

The kids cheered and rushed pass an old oak tree that was the pride and joy of the Shire since it’s foundation thousands of years prior. Kili carefully rose and walked Sam over to where the children were now playing a form of tag.

“He _is_ a child himself,” said Bilbo, continuing the conversation with the girls.

“A child who knows responsibility. Did you see how he handled little Sam?” Prim asked, leaning forward over the table to enter the conversation. “You couldn’t have chosen a better life-partner, Bilbo.”

Bilbo flushed, “Please, we haven’t even had the wedding yet.”

“True… when is that?” Bell asked. “I know you can sign those papers at the courthouse, probably in Dale, but then you can have the wedding here! That’s how your mother did it… though Bungo made her hire the lawyer to some down to Bag End in the end there…”

Bilbo thought about it, “We haven’t really discussed the wedding. I mean, ironically, at those parties last week, we talked about it.”

“Ironically?” Prim asked, lifting her eyebrows. “I seem to remember you two gushing at each other and making the interviewer quite nervous. Probably on purpose.”

Bell slapped his arm, “Oh, you naughty boy! You were always like that when we were kids!”

“I’m sorry! And Kili started it!” Bilbo cried.

“A likely story!” Prim called, slapping the wooden table with her palm.

The three burst out into fits of laughter, and Bilbo remembered a time when the two girls used to play as Halfling maids with him in their youth.

“But honestly, who wouldn’t want to have a wedding ceremony in the Shire?” Bell asked.

“Have you had a wedding anywhere else?” Bilbo asked.

Bell glared at him, but Prim giggled quite girlishly, “He has you there, Bell… You’ve only been married the once.”

“Look who’s talking, Mrs. Baggins!” Bell shot back.

Bilbo laughed alongside Primula, and then excused himself from the table to join Kili near the oak tree. “How are you doing?” Kili asked, playing with Sam’s hands: waving them in the air to a little beat.

“Well enough, thanks,” Bilbo said, looking behind him at the party, “Seems they may be here for me, but everyone’s so caught up in music and eating that not many of them have noticed I’m here.”

“Would you like to change that?” Kili asked, swaying in close to him, but soon swaying away.

Bilbo grimaced, “Gods no.”

Kili swayed mostly to the music as he cooed over Sam, but he stopped swaying when Frodo came up to them and asked to hold Sam. Kili handed him over with a warning, “You be careful with Sammy, all right?”

“Aye, Your Highness,” Frodo replied, nodding his head in a tiny bow before walking boldly back to the camp he and the other children had set up.

Bilbo grinned as he watched Frodo with the baby. His eyes roamed over to Kili, who was watching the children intently, making sure Frodo didn’t trip up or anything.

“Do you want some of your own?” Bilbo asked.

Kili turned to him, flashing a smile, “Of course. Don’t you?”

“I guess I wouldn’t mind,” replied Bilbo, leaning back on his hands. “Although, with all the children running around Bag End I never… never would have wanted children of my own had I not… not gone to Dale and met you.”

Kili flushed, “Don’t I feel special.”

“You should,” Bilbo replied.

They were silent for a moment, watching the children and listening to the music that permeated over the green. Paladin came close to them with his fiddle, smiling and winking at Bilbo, who smiled and nodded back. Kili glanced at the fiddle and sighed, “If only I had brought my violin with me.”

“Is it back at the house?” Bilbo asked, watching the fiddler.

“Sadly, yes. I mean, I had the sense to bring it with me on this trip,” Kili explained, putting his hand over Bilbo’s, “But I didn’t even know this was a party. Drogo bundled me out of the house so quickly…”

“I’m sure Paladin will give you his fiddle to play for now,” Bilbo said, turning so that he was now facing the party and not the children. He pointed to his cousin, who nodded at him. Bilbo beckoned him over, and Paladin oblidged. No one seemed to notice there was one fiddle lost, though, which was a relief to Kili in particular.

“What is it, Master cousin?” Paladin asked.

“Kili wants to play the fiddle tonight and he left his violin at home. I was wondering if he could borrow yours?” Bilbo asked.

“I don’t have to if you don’t want me to borrow it,” said Kili quickly, suddenly shy.

Paladin clucked his tongue, “Its fine, lad. I didn’t know you played.”

“I’ve played in public before,” said Kili. “And I’m probably rubbish.”

Paladin looked to Bilbo to see if the young Prince was just being humble, but Bilbo shrugged, “I’ve never heard him play.”

“What!” Paladin cried, “Your fiancé hasn’t heard you play, Your Highness? That’s near to blasphemy, lad. Music pierces the bonds of the heart, and if you haven’t pierced your young lad’s heart with your music, then it’s much like not consummating your marriage after the wedding ceremony!”

Kili flushed, looking toward Bilbo, who was in very much the same boat. The Prince laughed it off, though, and said, “My, you take music seriously here in the Shire. I never knew!”

“My dear cousin sings awful fine,” said Paladin. “Perhaps you two can make some sweet music together,” he handed over his fiddle at this, winking at the couple and making Bilbo flush violently.

After a few moments of trepidation, Kili took the fiddle from the Took.

Both Kili and Bilbo stared at the fiddle for a moment before Kili began to play, a tentative version of a song that sounded made-up to Bilbo. Soon, though, Kili began to play in full, and that was a magnet for the rest of the party. Soon people were clapping and dancing in range of Kili and the fiddle, and the children returned to sit in awe at his feet, clapping their hands. Some of the more courageous children began dancing with each other, the girls making pinwheels with their skirts as they danced around the blushing boys.

At one point in the impromptu recital, Bilbo, who was wide-eyed along with the rest, recognized one of the songs. “Oh, oh!” he cried.

When Kili stopped, Bilbo waved for him to go on as he stood up. “Pal! Elda!”

Paladin and Esmeralda stepped forward, grinning as they, too, recognized the song. The three began to sing together, clapping their hands and dancing solitary in the traditional Scottish dance, for it was a Scottish song that Kili had unknowingly started playing on Paladin’s fiddle.

Kili laughed as he watched his fiancé collapse into Esmeralda’s arms at the end of the song, out of breath but laughing anyway. Bilbo collapsed into the grass again next to Kili, who continued playing, even as he asked, “How are you doing?”

Bilbo smiled at him, and it affected Kili like an arrow to the heart to see Bilbo’s flushed cheeks and his truly happy smile. “I’m doing great. How about you?”

Kili recovered quickly from his shock and smiled, nodding. “One or two more songs, everybody!” he said to the crowd.

Bilbo settled down next to him, humming the melodies as he remembered them, and as he listened, his mind began to wander: into the future, where, as well as Merry and Sam and the other children of Bag End’s employees, there were three little adopted children of Bilbo and Kili’s own, running about.

Kili ran after them, his back turning to Bilbo as he did, and when he came back with one of their daughters on his shoulders, his face broke out into one of his smiles as he came closer to kiss his husband.

Bilbo sighed, coming back to the present. Kili was just ending his last note, eyes trained carefully on Bilbo’s face. The younger Prince handed Paladin his fiddle back, and the party got on again with a full band.

Kili rose, his hand stretched out to Bilbo. “Where did you go?” he asked.

“Huh?” Bilbo asked, looking at Kili’s tanned hands in front of his face.

“You had a faraway look in your eyes. I was just curious where you went,” Kili repeated.

“I just… was thinking of the future,” said Bilbo, putting his hand over Kili’s. “Our future.”

Kili flushed. “What did you see, if I may ask?”

“You may, but I have a right not to answer,” Bilbo replied, and before Kili could reply said, “Do you think your uncle would hate me if I suggested having the wedding ceremony here in the Shire?”

Kili thought about that, and then chuckled, “Probably. But if Fili and I get our double wedding, then with he and Bofur on board we’d get the green light eventually.”

“Nothing denied the Crowned Prince of Erebor,” Bilbo sighed.

Kili crooked his head to the side, regarding Bilbo again, “I think we should get you home.”

“How?” Bilbo asked, “The driver of the carriage we came in was probably tipped heavily to stay near the party at all times.”

“Quite the opposite,” said Prim, clearing her throat from behind them. They turned to her and she continued, “I paid the driver to take you two back whenever Bilbo needed. I knew my darling cousin would need to go back to his warm cozy room earlier than this lot, and so I acted accordingly.”

Bilbo threw his arms around his cousin, pecking her on the cheek, “You are a wonderful person and I don’t know what my life would be without you.”

Prim rolled her eyes, but soon Kili and Bilbo were sneaking off toward the cul-de-sac where they had been dropped off earlier in the evening.

***

They retired to the room between their individual rooms. “I wish I would have grown up here, in the Shire,” Kili said wistfully.

Bilbo looked over at him, crooking his head to one side. “Really? Even after growing up in a palace, getting everything you could ever want?”

Kili grinned, “That was fun. But you seem to have everything you need right here. You may not get everything you want but… Family? Good food? Friends? Cheer and laughter and music? That sounds much better than anything I ever got in my whole life.”

_Not to mention Azog would have been far away had you grown up in the country…_ Bilbo thought.

“You’re very good on the fiddle,” Bilbo commented.

Kili smiled, “Thanks. I used to love playing when I was a lad. Before… well… you know.”

“Have you ever thought of studying music in earnest?” Bilbo asked.

Kili gazed into the fire for a long time before he answered, “I was honestly at my happiest playing Paladin’s fiddle. Especially for you,” he said, looking over at Bilbo through the curtain of his brown hair. Bilbo took the Prince’s hand, and Kili continued, “During the years with Azog… playing the violin was honestly the best part of my day. Even if I was aching all over, the music just… transported me somewhere else. Somewhere safe.”

Bilbo’s eyes roamed Kili’s face, which was devoid of bruises after five months. He tried to see the bruise of Azog’s parting gift, but he couldn’t imagine such a painful birthday present. His eyes then moved lower, seeing some scars on his neck, and wondering how far they extended and with what they were made with. His hands moved to the hem of Kili’s shirt quite on their own, and Kili moved his hands over them quickly, his eyes now looking worried, embarrassed, even.

“Your scars…” Bilbo muttered, now self-conscious and trying to pull his hands away.

Kili gripped Bilbo’s hand tightly to his stomach, looking over at the fireplace, where he had just made a fire by himself (all right, with spoken instruction from Bilbo). “This is… fine,” he said, then, clenching his jaw he explained, “They’re from… canes. And… and the rings on his fingers once you get to… to the…” he gestured towards his chest self-consciously, “and… and the thighs. You don’t want to see… see them…”

Bilbo leaned in, as if to kiss his mouth, but before he could he slipped his head down to Kili’s neck and kissed along the scar until he got to collar of Kili’s shirt. “Is this all right?”

In answer, Kili nodded, and his hands let up on Bilbo’s for the other man to lift his shirt up and over his head. Bilbo took no time in finishing his covering of the cane scar with kisses. His eyes caught sight of something below Kili’s right nipple, though, and he gazed a long time at it. “Still all right?” he asked, eyes flicking up to Kili’s.

Kili had been watching Bilbo, at first tense, but slowly relaxing as Bilbo continued, curious. He nodded for Bilbo to continue.

“Are you sure?” Bilbo asked.

“Positive,” Kili replied. Bilbo was still hesitant, “Really, Bilbo. It’s fine.”

Bilbo nodded, and, as his eyes drifted downward again, he noticed a cut patterning that should have been a whole hand, but was only three fingers. “Rings,” Kili explained, eyes having followed Bilbo’s.

“Index finger, middle finger, and ring finger. On his right hand,” Bilbo said, his fingers trying to fit the scars but they were so much bigger. He then turned to the other nipple, which had a similar patterning under it, “And on his left: index finger, middle finger, pinkie.” Again the fingers on Bilbo’s left hand tried to fit the scar patterns, but his hand was too small.

Bilbo put a fist up to his mouth, feeling the tears streaking his cheek. He moved back on the footrest he was sitting on and leaned down, kissing each ring-cut scar at its origin. Kili’s breath hitched, and soon he, too, was crying, pulling Bilbo into a tight embrace.

Bilbo wondered if Kili’s back had similar scars, but refrained from actually looking as he tightened his arms around Kili, whispering, “I’m sorry. I am so, so sorry, Kili.”

_Azog will pay dearly for this._


	10. Bilbo's Fans

The next morning the sun woke Bilbo up. He remembered, vaguely, collapsing in Kili’s arms the night before and having to be carried to bed. He didn’t remember which bed he had been carried too, but by looking around the room, and seeing that everything was flip-flopped from the room he had been sleeping in, he knew it had to be Kili’s.

“Mr. Bilbo?” a small voice asked, waking the aforementioned man up a bit more.

Frodo was at the end of the bed, looking up at him with his big blue eyes. “Prince Kili requests your presence at his table this morning.”

Bilbo blinked a bit before nodding, “Thank you, Frodo. Umm… message received.”

After dressing and his other morning ablutions, Bilbo made his way down the halls to the dining area, which had been completely cut off. No one else seemed to be in the house with Bilbo, which made the twenty-three-year-old a bit nervous. He pushed the door open to the biggest grin he hadn’t seen for a while.

“Morning, gorgeous,” said Kili.

Bilbo looked around him at the various heated dishes and smiled, “What, not breakfast in bed again?”

“Ooh…” Kili replied, tapping his chin with his index finger, “Maybe some other time. Sit! Eat!”

“What’s the occasion?” Bilbo asked, cautiously sitting down.

“We’re on vacation,” Kili shrugged. “We haven’t had a meal alone since we met? I thought I would court you right, dear Bilbo.”

Bilbo flushed, “They do things strangely in the city.”

Kili pouted his lips out a little and said, “You don’t like breakfast?”

Bilbo glanced over at his fiancé, a little startled, “I love breakfast. I love it so much I sometimes have two. It’s just… last night. Did you take me to your bed?”

“You were sacked out, Bilbo,” said Kili, “I thought you would sleep better in my bed with me.”

“With you, then,” said Bilbo, staring at his hands, which were placed in his lap. He hadn’t ladled up food, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to just yet.

“Is the dear sweet lad _shy_?” Kili asked, teasing.

“Well,” Bilbo said, looking up at the other man, “I thought… you wouldn’t be ready for that sort of thing…”

“Bilbo,” Kili said, leaning forward, his eyes turning serious, “I let you touch the _scars_ on my neck and chest last night. Besides, we did no more touching last night after that. You fell asleep from all the excitement from the your unexpected party, and, like I said, I didn’t want to pry you from myself for fear you would wake up.”

Bilbo nodded, still a bit embarrassed. “I don’t know what came over me.”

Kili picked up a fork and twirled it over his empty plate (he hadn’t eaten yet either). “It was all right.”

“The memories weren’t too much for you?” Bilbo asked cautiously.

Kili smiled, “No. It was… freeing. And… and they hurt less after you… you kissed them.”

“They still hurt?” Bilbo asked incredulousness in his tone.

“Mentally,” Kili said, looking off to the side, “Looking at them made me… remember. But last night… all I could see and feel was… was you. Kissing the pain away.”

Bilbo flushed, and opened one of the covered dishes on the table. Kili soon followed and they abandoned the conversation to fill their empty stomachs.

***

Bilbo and Kili flanked Primula and Sam as the children Took and Gamgee girls walked ahead of them and Frodo held Merry’s hand as the two boys trailed after the group. The party were making toward a lovely little lake that had been dammed on both ends by two families of beavers. “I like to think they’re at war sometimes,” said Prim. “Fire in the hole!” she cried, throwing a rock into the middle of the pool and making the children cheer, clapping and giggling.

The only way the children would eat was if Bilbo would read to them, and so he read aloud from the gilded book a fairytales that had been his mother’s favorite book to read to him when he was small (not the one found in the sitting room between Bilbo and Kili’s rooms, thankfully). He avoided “Beauty and the Beast,” however, opting for any story where the beast was not rewarded with the lady’s hand. He remembered the way his mother had told the stories, and told them exactly like she had, and it had the girls in stitches, or in awe. The boys tried to stay stony-faced, but whenever Sam would gurgle and clap, Frodo would as well, and Merry would be forced to follow.

When the kids were full there was no way to keep them still for another story, so Primula let them go off and play around the lake.

“Don’t try swimming! Frodo! Hold Merry and Pearl’s hands, please!” Primula called, then she turned back to her cousin-in-law and his husband-to-be.

“You give them a lot of independence here,” said Kili.

“Well… they have older sisters and brothers to care for them. And as long as an adult or an older child is there to look out for them, they should have fun and learn about the world around them from nature itself.”

“You don’t teach them in schools?” Kili asked.

“Most of the kids are homeschooled, or schooled in the library of Bag End, especially if their parents work for the house, which most of the Shire does,” said Bilbo. “But after the planting, outside is the best place for the children, because the science they can learn is all out here. They’re not quite learning physics and complex mathematics yet.”

“They learn their letters and numbers, and basic math. If they have an affinity or a liking for some subjects they can find all the books they want at the library at Bag End, or sometimes we even take them to Bree and get them proper schooling. But with their abilities here, they always manage to get into University if they want. Bree-town always takes our kids, no matter how they qualify,” said Prim. “I went to University, and so did Bilbo for a time.”

Bilbo nodded, “Frodo seems like the type to go…”

“I hope he does,” said Prim. “I hope Merry goes and Sam, and the girls and every child born in the Shire.”

“Firm believer in education, are you, Mrs. Baggins?” Kili asked cheekily.

Primula stuck her tongue out at him, “Of course. Education is what gets you a job in the city. I want some of these children to go out and live their lives. They can come back and work for Bag End, of course, if they wish, but every child should have the best future possible.”

Bilbo smiled, “You’re starting to talk like a Took,” he said.

“Paladin and Esmeralda’s fault,” said Primula. “They were thinking about going back to Scotland to birth Peregrin, and then stay forever. Eggy and Sara are all on board for this, of course. Aberdeen has always been Paladin and Esmeralda’s home, and I’m sure the clan up there will have somewhere for them to live…”

“Are they going to do it?” Bilbo asked.

“It’s just a notion,” replied Prim. “Frodo would miss Merry to pieces, so they’ll probably move back to Scotland when their children are all of age.”

Kili nodded, “That sounds like a good plan… but they can still go visit Scotland in the meantime. I mean, you said you wanted the children cultured and… leaving Erebor will certainly help them gain experience.”

Bilbo nodded, “I wish I had gotten a chance to travel…”

“Did you go anywhere outside the Misty Mountains, Prince Kili?” Primula asked.

Kili grinned, “I went to France to see my friend Arwen off to University. And then a few weeks later I visited Legolas at his University in England.”

“Good,” said Prim. She put and hand over Bilbo’s, “We were going to study abroad together in Scotland one year, but then Bilbo rushed back to take care of Bag End and I was forced to go to Russia for a year instead.”

“You poor, unfortunate soul,” said Bilbo, trying his hardest not to roll his eyes. “Why not Scotland?”

“You were the one who was crazy about the place,” said Prim. “I just wanted to get out of Erebor and see the world…”

“Do we need to go Scotland for out honeymoon, Bilbo?” Kili asked, a shit-eating grin on his face.

“We might,” said Bilbo coyly.

“So,” said Primula, after the shortest of pauses, “Frodo freaked out when you weren’t in your room this morning.”

“Did he?” Bilbo asked, flushing, “What did you tell him?”

“I told him you were in my room,” said Kili. “He woke you up, if you remember. I told him where you were, and told him to wake you up carefully to tell you about breakfast.”

“Ah,” replied Bilbo, and started curling a blade of grass around his index finger.

Frodo and one of the Gamgee sisters, Marigold, soon approached them a few minutes later. Marigold took up the book of fairytales with Bilbo’s permission, and the two went off in the woods so Marigold could read to Frodo.

 “Pervinca and Pimpernel should be up in a bit. They don’t tire as easily as Frodo and Goldi,” Primula said, nodding at the two. Then to Kili she said, “Some of our children tire of the others faster. Sensitive little ones, like Bilbo here,” she bumped shoulders lightly with her cousin, and he shoved her back playfully.

 “I’m afraid Bilbo’s marrying into a bunch of rowdy folks, but we’ll take good care of him,” said Kili giggling at the two.

“I’m not a dog,” Bilbo retorted sharply.

“That’s right,” Kili said, petting Bilbo’s head, “You’re a hedgehog.”

“I don’t think you can pet a hedgehog…” Primula pointed out.

“You remember old Uncle Radagast?” Bilbo asked.

“The one who was called to be head of medicine in Lord Thranduil’s Mirkwood mansion?” Prim asked, “He was batty.”

“He was so batty he thought he could talk to animals, and was often seen around these here woods picking up and asking hedgehogs and badgers and all kinds of woodland creatures how they felt,” Bilbo explained, chuckling. “So I think you can pet a hedgehog…”

Kili laughed aloud, “Radagast, really? He sounds like my kind of man. I want to know how to take care of my little hedgehog here…” he continued petting Bilbo’s hair, and Primula burst out into laughter just as the two younger Took girls approached them. “Is Master Bilbo really a hedgehog?” asked the younger girl softly.

“Yes, young Pervinca,” said Kili. “Secretly, in the dead of night, your master Baggins goes off in the woods to converse with the other woodland creatures about not eating your crops at night.”

“You have me confused with the bear-man of the Carrock, darling,” Bilbo said, glaring fondly at his fiancé.

“Still, that’s an awesome children’s book idea,” said Primula. “I know you’ve always had aspirations to write those, Bo.”

Kili looked at him, “Have you? Is that what your degree was towards?”

Bilbo blushed, “Yes… but I needed an illustrator.”

“Ori would do it,” said Kili brightly. “He and Arwen are going into a video game business together, but Ori can do a great cartoon-y style as well as his epic graphic design skills.”

“Wow…” said Bilbo, “Maybe he’d like to take a look at the manuscript for a little picture book I’ve titled _There and Back Again: A Hobbit’s Tale_. It’s… based on our play from when I was a child… those Halflings I was talking about.”

“Hobbit?” Kili asked.

Pervinca and Pimpernel had sat down at this point, fascinated.

“I studied Old English in University,” said Bilbo, “Hobbit comes from their word that means ‘hole-dweller’ and… well, the Halflings in my story live in holes.”

 “That’s… adorable,” said Kili. “Like… house-holes? Like houses only in the ground?”

“Exactly,” said Bilbo, smiling. “Everyone I ever told about them thought I meant actual holes. No, hobbits are creatures of comfort, only this hobbit, in my story, goes on an adventure with thirteen dwarves and a wizard, to steal back treasure and vanquish a dragon.”

“That sounds really cool, Master Bilbo,” said Pimpernel softly.

Bilbo patted her head, “It’s good to know I’ll have at least one little fan of my book.”

“Two! Two!” said Pervinca excitedly.

“Three,” said Prim.

“Four,” said Kili.

Bilbo flushed, “I… I best get to work on the book then. You said Ori would want to illustrate?”

“His first drawing was of Peter Rabbit, when he was five,” said Kili, “And it was pretty well-done for a child’s drawing…”

“Okay then…” Bilbo replied, “I will get on that.”

***

Bilbo slipped away from Kili and Primula a few minutes later, telling them he wanted to email Ori and ask if he would look over the manuscript of _There and Back Again_ to see if he would like to illustrate it. Kili and Primula stayed by the water, and Bilbo made his way to the house, saying hello to all of his former employees who said hello to him first.

After sending the email, Bilbo caught up on his reading, though he checked his email every five minutes, wondering where Ori was and what he was doing.

_I’m like a schoolgirl,_ Bilbo thought, closing his laptop and moving away from the desk so he might be less tempted.

He got a text from Ori a little later, who praised him for about fifteen minutes over multiple text messages until Bilbo made the boy call him. “Please, please, please get that published! I’m already sketching ideas!” Ori cried, “You actually pulled me away from hacking into the German and Hungarian police records. I traced Azog all the way over there…”

“What?! Did you find anything?” Bilbo asked.

“Again, I began sketching little sketches of hobbits and dwarves before I could actually hack into the files. Former-Prime Minster Azog worked in the governments of Germany and then Hungary before he moved to Erebor, but he was chased out for legal reasons,” Ori explained. “I was just about to run the software to read the files when I got your manuscript…”

“How long will it take you to get into those files?” Bilbo asked.

“Tomorrow night?” Ori said, “I mean, if I give myself time to get distracted by hobbits.”

Bilbo laughed, “I won’t be a cruel taskmaster. Please, take your time. I mean, we have another week and a half until the trial starts so… that’s enough time for you to find incriminating data…”

“Well, thank you,” said Ori, “I really think you should publish your story, though. I think it’s great. And everyone in Erebor will buy it because well… it’s you.”

“Yes, I’ll be part of the Royal Family,” Bilbo replied, “Thank you for reminding me.”

“That’s… that’s not what I meant! I just meant that everyone’s seen you on TV and according to the ratings they really love you!” Ori seemed panicked that he had done something wrong, and it warmed Bilbo’s heart for some reason. “I thought you were happy with Kili…”

“I am, Ori,” replied Bilbo, softly, “It was sarcasm. I’m sorry if it seemed I misunderstood you.”

“Oh,” said Ori, “No problem...”

“Anyway,” said Bilbo, “I hope to be the third to hear all the dirty details about Azog… after Gandalf and His Majesty, of course.”

“Right,” said Ori, and Bilbo could hear him nodding as he said this. “I’ll talk to you as soon as possible.”

“Thank you Ori…” Bilbo said, “for your praise on my humble children’s story, and for everything you’re doing for Kili.”

“He’s my friend,” said Ori. “I’d shoot down the moon for him.”

“Me too,” said Bilbo with a smile.

“You’d get it down first,” Ori replied brightly. “He’d want you to get it down first, I mean…”

After Bilbo and Ori hung up, Bilbo continued reading for a little while until he had to open his laptop again and start a new children’s book: all about a hedgehog-man who used diplomacy to keep the other creatures from stealing from his family’s garden.

***

Bilbo went down to dinner, where he ate with the family and Kili. Frodo was soon put to bed, and Drogo retired to his study (Bilbo’s old one). Bilbo moved to the library, having not been there in a while. Kili followed him, though he did not say anything, just gasped a little as he saw the books.

Bilbo smiled at him. He was just taking a book off the shelf when Kili said, “We should go to Moria tomorrow.”

“Had enough of playing with children and working in the fields like a real man?” Bilbo asked.

Kili laughed, “I want you to see the place. I am inheriting it once we marry, after all. And it’s got some… good memories attached to it. You can see some pictures of my mum and dad… and some pictures of Uncle and his siblings together as wee ones!”

Bilbo smiled, “Ah, a time when your uncle didn’t have a stick up his arse.”

“I like to think of him more as Mr. Darcy,” said Kili. “You know. Not proud and stuck-up. Just shy.”

Bilbo sighed, “Fine. I hope he finds his Elizabeth, then. It will be hard.”

Kili laughed, “Yeah. He’s just… stressed all the time. He really does need someone to take on half of his work, but he’s too stubborn to find anyone…”

“Gandalf helps him a lot, doesn’t he?” Bilbo asked.

Kili sighed, “With legal work, yeah. Historically, the Kings and Queens all married mostly out of love, but also because then they could split all the work. And if one was sick, then the other could take on his or her duties.”

“Right,” Bilbo said, “And even with Fili as Crowned Prince, and Bofur as his fiancé, all the work still goes to Thorin.”

“Well…” Kili said, “Fili and Bofur try to help, but Thorin just snaps at them. He’s been doing that more and more these days…”

Bilbo sighed, “He needs a vacation more than we do.”

Kili smiled, “I don’t think Uncle would think so…”

“Well… we’ve got May Day coming up. The whole country goes on holiday for festivals, so we’ll have to lock up his laptop and pens,” Bilbo said, and both of them burst out laughing.

“That we will,” said Kili. “So… shall we go to Moria tomorrow, then?”

“Yes,” replied Bilbo. “And Ori should call in with some… uh… research. For the trial.”

“Oh, good?” Kili asked.

“Let’s hope so.”

***

That night Bilbo and Kili sat in the sitting room in between their rooms. Bilbo had his nose in a book, and Kili was softly playing his violin. Bilbo had explained that he liked to listen to music while he was reading, and Kili loved to play his violin. So they compromised that Kili would play quietly, and Bilbo could lose himself in a book.

Bilbo hardly heard the grandfather clock chiming a few hours later, but Kili set down his instrument and said, “Bilbo, you should get some sleep. We should go out on the earliest train to Moria if we want to just take a day trip…”

Bilbo looked up at him, “Oh, right… sorry.”

“No, no,” Kili said, smiling. “I know you and Alice are stuck in Wonderland.”

“Again,” added Bilbo, but he closed the book and stood to go to bed.

“Bilbo?” Kili asked.

“Hm?” Bilbo replied, turning back to Kili.

“Will you, uh…” Kili started, and twisted his hands together in front of him, embarrassed, “I mean. Last night I… I slept better with you, uh, next to me and I wanted to, to… I’m curious if… if it would happen again if you slept with me again. Just sleeping!” This last cry was an amendment to how the whole request sounded. Of course, nothing had happened the night before beyond actual sleep.

Bilbo flushed. “Well… of course. As your husband I hope we will not be sleeping in separate beds so… might as well get used to it now?”

Kili breathed easier after this statement, nodding his head eagerly. “Well… um… my bed or yours?”

“Either one, my Prince,” Bilbo said, “You choose.”

“I cannot always be the chooser,” Kili retorted childishly.

Bilbo smiled, “Then my bed. Frodo always comes to my room first, and I don’t want him panicking again.”

Kili nodded, and Bilbo soon crawled into bed with his husband-to-be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come hang out on tumblr with me!: s-w-e-e-t--puck.tumblr.com


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